The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Despite reports of fraud, the success of initial coin offerings compares favorably to conventional technology projects and early-stage ventures. Ernst & Young recently published a damning analysis of 2017’s initial coin offerings. The odd thing is it concentrates on the financial performance of the cryptocurrency market’s equivalent to an initial public offering in the mainstream investment world since the end of 2017. That does not reflect on the competence and sincerity of their…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) MTN Group Ltd.’s battles with Nigerian authorities over $10 billion in repatriated funds and back taxes could increase risk in South Africa’s financial system, the Reserve Bank said. Africa’s largest wireless carrier by subscribers is facing mounting pressure to return $8.1 billion to Nigeria after its central bank argued that the Johannesburg-based company had repatriated funds illegally. Separately, the West African nation’s attorney general’s office alleges the company owes $2…

DAKAR (Capital Markets in Africa) – Senegal is considering raising royalties and taking a bigger stake in oil and natural gas projects as part of the West African nation’s overhaul of its oil code, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. Senegal is revising its code as a string of major discoveries off its coast is expected to make the country an oil exporter in coming years, with explorers including BP Plc and FAR Ltd. due…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Foreigners are losing their taste for Ghanaian local-currency debt. Offshore investors bought 38 percent of the 989 million cedis ($204 million) of three-year bonds the government sold on October 18, according to data from Central Securities Depository Ghana Ltd. That’s down from 53 percent at a similar sale in September last year, and as much as 80 percent of an offering of five-year debt two months before that. An…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – OPEC’s crude production climbed to the highest level since 2016 as increases by Saudi Arabia and Libya offset losses stemming from impending U.S. sanctions on Iran. The group’s 15 members boosted output by 430,000 barrels a day to 33.33 million a day in October, according to a Bloomberg survey of officials, analysts and ship-tracking data. That’s the highest since November 2016, just before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries implemented production…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank has done a good job keeping the naira stable, but it’s paying a high price. The currency of Africa’s biggest oil producer has barely budged this year, weakening less than 1 percent against the dollar. That compares with 14 percent for South Africa’s rand and 4.3 percent for major emerging-market currencies, which have been battered by the dollar’s strength and trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The cost for…