West Africa | - Part 24

IMF Urges Nigeria to Start Belt Tightening, Cut Naira Curbs

LAGOA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria should remove currency-trading restrictions and reduce its budget deficit and debt-service costs to “sustainable” levels, the International Monetary Fund said. “Stronger macroeconomic policies are urgently needed to rebuild confidence and foster an economic recovery,” the Washington-based lender said in a report Thursday after a team visited Nigeria. There’s a “need for a front-loaded, revenue-based fiscal consolidation starting in 2017, to reduce the federal government interest-payments-to-revenue ratio to sustainable levels.” The…

Budget Pain Abating for Ghana Prompts Longest Cedi Bond Sale

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana is selling its longest local-currency bonds as the stabilizing cedi and government steps to rein in a budget shortfall stoke appetite for the West African nation’s debt. The Finance Ministry gave final guidance of 19.75 percent for the 15-yearcallable bonds and is due to stop accepting bids at 3 p.m. in Accra. Yields on the government’s local debt have fallen in the past month, helping the ministry place 1.4 billion…

Ghana names monetary policy expert Addison as central bank governor

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo named senior monetary policy expert Ernest Addison as central bank governor on Thursday, a day after his predecessor resigned for personal reasons, a statement from the presidency said. Addison, who in the early 2000s was a leading architect of Ghana’s monetary policy, worked as a lead economist at the African Development Bank. The announcement comes as Akufo-Addo’s young government seeks to stabilize national finances and…

Nigeria’s stock exchange gets green light for public listing

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Reuters) – The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has been given a green light by its members to become a publicly listed company, it said on Thursday. The members also approved the appointment of South African bank FirstRand and local investment firm Chapel Hill Denham to guide it through the process of becoming a listed company, the NSE said. The second-biggest bourse in sub-Saharan Africa after Johannesburg and a main entry point for investors in…

Investors Flock to Nigeria Eurobonds, But Won’t Touch the Naira

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s oversubscribed Eurobond on Wednesday showed that investors will flock to the country’s dollar assets. But when it comes to naira ones, they’re staying well away. Nigeria got around $3 billion of orders for its $500 million of notes, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. High demand for the deal, a tap of an existing $1 billion bond due in 2032, allowed bookrunners…

Bank of Ghana Governor Issahaku Resigns After Year in Post

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bank of Ghana Governor Abdul Nashiru Issahaku tendered his resignation after a year in the job and three months after the president who appointed him lost power. Issahaku, 55, will leave the post for “personal reasons,” he said in a text message on Thursday. He was appointed governor in April by former PresidentJohn Dramani Mahama, whose National Democratic Congress lost the December election to the New Patriotic Party led by President Nana Akufo-Addo….

IFC Plans More Nigeria Investment, $1 Billion in Bond Sale

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa)- The World Bank’s private-lending arm plans to boost investments in Nigeria by about 20 percent as Africa’s second-biggest oil producer tries to recover from a recession. The International Finance Corp. is looking to invest about $1.2 billion in Nigeria for the year through June 2018 using equity or debt the IFC raises itself or that it mobilizes from other sources, Country Manager Eme Lore said in a March 22 interview in Lagos,…

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