The Markets

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Zimbabwe said it will allow companies and individuals to transfer dollars electronically, as it looks to ease a crippling scarcity of foreign exchange that’s sent the economy into meltdown and triggered protests. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has upgraded its systems to allow for such transactions and will run testing until Feb. 1, after which it plans to go live, the bank said in a statement Monday. The southern African nation’s…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt has appointed banks including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to sell dollar bonds in the first quarter of the year to help reduce the budget deficit. The country also picked HSBC Holdings Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for the deal and hired BNP Paribas SA, Natixis SA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Standard Chartered Plc for the issuance of euro-denominated debt, according to a statement from the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Naspers Ltd. will focus on streamlining technologies and harnessing artificial intelligence across its e-commerce and classifieds businesses after taking full control of Russia’s Avito BB in a $1.1 billion deal. Africa’s biggest company by market value on Friday bought out minority shareholders in Avito through its OLX Group, increasing exposure to Russia’s e-commerce market and strengthening its global reach in the sector. Naspers plans to consolidate different local online technologies into a…

— As we start 2019, it is an opportune time to reflect on the year that was and forge the way forward. The cryptoeconomy celebrated its 10th  birthday in 2018, reaching a total market capitalization of approximately $138.6 billion (KSh 14.2 trillion). In spite of a fluctuating market, a leading global peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, Paxful (www.Paxful.com), saw an upswing in activity, driven by African consumers in which servicing the underbanked resulted in significant gains. Africa conducted 6.5 million trades…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – BCS Americas (BCSA) a division of BCS Global Markets (BCS GM) has announced the launch of a new trading platform that will provide global equity execution and settlement capabilities to institutional investors with access to a suite of algorithmic trading tools accessible 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. BCS GM first unlocked Russian markets for US investors with the launch of BCS Americas in 2016. BCS Americas…