Fiscal Finance |

South Africa $12 Billion Fee Plan to Pressure Budget, WB Says

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s plan to spend more subsidizing higher education is fiscally unsustainable and is unlikely to supply more skills to the economy, the World Bank said. The cost of post-school education and training will more than double to 172.2 billion rand ($12 billion) by 2022, or 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, from 65.4 billion rand in 2017, the Washington-based lender said in an economic update on the country…

Ghana Seeks to Rein In Runaway Spending With New Legislation

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana wants to put an end to chronic overspending by making it illegal to propose or implement a budget where the deficit is larger than 5 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said. The West African nation’s government will this year ask lawmakers to amend the Public Financial Management Act to limit the budget deficit from 2018, Ofori-Atta said by phone on Thursday. The Finance Ministry will ensure…

IMF Wants Full Mozambique Debt Audit as Bondholders Slam Default

Posted on by The Editorial Team

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund said Mozambique must publish the full audit of hidden debt before it will consider resuming lending, as bondholders criticized the government’s latest default on its Eurobonds. The IMF welcomed the release last month of a summary of the Kroll LCC audit, saying it constituted an “important step toward greater transparency,” spokesman William Murray said at a briefing in Washington Thursday. The fund will consider re-engaging with Mozambique once the…

South Africa’s Welfare Agency Scraps Minister’s Advisory Teams

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African Social Services Agency has scrapped the advisory groups that were set up to plan for the future of the country’s more than $11 billion of annual welfare payments. Letters were sent to the so-called “work streams” last week informing them of their termination, Sassa Chief Executive Officer Thokozani Magwaza said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on Monday. Magwaza said he had informed Social Development Minister…