West Africa | - Part 16

Nigeria May End Multiple Naira Rates in Quest for Inflows

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria will end a system of multiple exchange rates that has deterred investment in its stocks and bonds, according to the head of the country’s main currency-trading platform. The central bank and Lagos-based FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange are taking a “phased approach toward a single foreign-exchange market,” according to Bola Onadele. “There is opportunity for convergence and there is no better time for it,” Onadele, also known as Koko, said…

Moody’s assigns first-time ratings to Union Bank of Nigeria Plc

Posted on by The Editorial Team

London (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service has today assigned first-time ratings to Union Bank of Nigeria plc (Union Bank): long- and short-term Local and Foreign Currency Deposit and Issuer Ratings of B2/Not Prime, and a b3 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA). Moody’s also assigned long- and short-term Counterparty Risk (CR) Assessment of B1(cr)/Not Prime(cr), long- and short-term National Scale Local Currency Ratings of Aa3.ng/NG-1, and long- and short-term National Scale Foreign Currency Ratings…

Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Falls to Lowest in a Year in May

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s inflation rate fell for a fourth straight month in May, dropping to the lowest in a year as growth in prices of most goods except food eased. Inflation in Nigeria, which vies with South Africa as the continent’s largest economy, slowed to 16.25 percent from 17.2 percent in April, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in an emailed report. The median of 15 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for…

Ghana to Tap Stabilization Fund for Cocoa Pay Next Season

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana will probably start drawing from its stabilization fund to cover cocoa farmers’ pay during the season that starts in October as the second-biggest grower props up local prices in the face of a global slump. While Ivory Coast, the largest producer, has already slashed the price it pays farmers for the smaller of two annual crops by 36 percent, Ghana’s Cocoa Board so far kept it unchanged and…

Infrastructure | AIIM acquires 44% stake in Mali Energy Farm

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BAMAKO (Capital Markets in Africa) – African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), the continent’s most experienced equity investor in African infrastructure, through its AIIF3 fund, has acquired a 44% stake in Albatros Energy Mali. Albatros Energy Mali will build, own, operate and transfer a 90 megawatt (MW) thermal power station in Kayes, western Mali and it will be the West African nation’s first independent power project (IPP) to feed into the national grid. Jurie Swart, AIIM’s…

Ivory Coast Said to Attract Almost $10 Billion in Eurobond Bids

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast attracted almost $10 billion in bids for its Eurobond auction on Thursday in a sale that came less than a month after a four-day mutiny by soldiers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The West African nation received about $4.8 billion in orders for the dollar portion of its debt sale and a further 4.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) for the second tranche by the…

Parallel Market Emerges in Nigeria’s Currency-Trading World

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A kind of parallel universe is taking shape in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange market. The African country’s traditional forwards market is facing competition from an upstart based on the new exchange-rate window policy makers opened six weeks ago. Bond investors and speculators are switching away from non-deliverable forwards that are linked to the main interbank exchange rate, which is tightly controlled by the central bank, and embracing the more liberal pricing…

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