West Africa | - Part 14

Gabon Seeks Private Partnerships to Boost Processing of Minerals

Libreville (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gabon, Africa’s second-biggest manganese producer, wants to partner with private companies to process most its minerals locally before exporting them, Mining Minister Christian Magnagna said. Local processing will boost the mining industry’s contribution to gross domestic product from the current 2.1 percent to at least 4 percent as the central African nation seeks to make its economy less dependent on oil, Magnagna said in an interview in the capital, Libreville….

Nigeria’s Succession Jitters With Ill President Buhari

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is awash in nervous speculation over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari, who hasn’t appeared in public since he returned to the U.K. for medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment on May 7. Buhari, 74 and a Muslim, has formally designated his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, acting president as he did when he was away on medical leave for 49 days from Jan. 20. The prospect of Osinbajo, a 60-year-old Christian,…

Nigeria Taps Microsoft to Oracle to Recover From Recession

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is hiring U.S. technology giants such as Oracle Corporation and Microsoft Corp. as the government invests more to save costs and fight corruption. An initiative led by Redwood, California-based Oracle has enabled Nigerian authorities to remove 50,000 so-called ghost workers, or fake entries, from the payroll, according to a presidency statement June 29. That followed Oracle’s decision to open an office in Abuja, the capital, in May. Other companies interested in taking…

Moody’s downgrades Gabon’s rating to B3, outlook negative

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LIBREVILLE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded the long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings of the government of Gabon to B3 from B1 and maintained the negative outlook. Concurrently, Moody’s has lowered the government of Gabon’s local currency as well as foreign currency bond and deposit ceilings to Ba3 from Ba1. The rating downgrade drove the change in ceilings. Rating Rationale The key drivers behind the downgrade to B3…

Ghana’s Economy Expands Most Since 2014 in First Quarter

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The economy of Ghana, West Africa’s biggest after Nigeria’s, expanded the most in almost three years in the first quarter, boosted by gains in the oil industry. Gross domestic product rose 6.6 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, Anthony Amuzu, deputy government statistician for operations at the Ghana Statistical Service, told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Accra. That’s the fastest expansion since the third quarter…

Burkina Faso Gets Solar Plant After Energy Policy Change

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OUAGADOUGOU (Capital Markets in Africa) – Burkina Faso signed an agreement to build a solar plant in the first such deal after the West African nation adopted legislation that authorizes private investment in the energy sector. Windiga Energy Inc. of Canada will install 85,000 photovoltaic panels to generate about 20 megawatts in the north-western outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou, the country’s energy minister, Alfa Omar Dissa, told reporters after the signing ceremony on Tuesday. The project…

LeapFrog invests US$180mn in Enterprise Group Ghana

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – LeapFrog Investments, the profit-with-purpose investor in emerging markets, today announces a total investment of US$180mn in Ghanaian financial services market leader, Enterprise Group Limited (Enterprise Group). The transaction draws from a US$350mn separately managed account, LeapFrog Strategic African Investments (LSAI), which was established in 2016 to access high growth markets in Africa. The Enterprise Group commitment represents LeapFrog’s largest investment to-date and marks the first investment of LSAI, a fund…

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