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IMF Extends Ghana Oversight as Bailout Plan Gets Another Year

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund approved a one-year extension of its credit-facility program with Ghana, lengthening the lender’s economic oversight of the West African nation which is battling to keep spending under control. The country’s Eurobonds rallied. The extension follows after the IMF completed a fourth review of an almost $1 billion assistance program with Ghana agreed to in April 2015, when chronic overspending and power cuts drained public finances and…

IMF Wants Full Mozambique Debt Audit as Bondholders Slam Default

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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…

Ghana President Says IMF Program Will Be Concluded Next Year

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s government said it is committed to meeting the obligations of an International Monetary Fund program and is working with the Washington-based lender to complete its 2018 budget. The West African nation is in the third-year of a $918 million credit-facility program that it agreed to with the IMF in April 2015 after its currency plunged and public debt ballooned. While the program was scheduled to be concluded in April…

Sub-Saharan Africa Needs Better Laws for $100 Billion Gap

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sub-Saharan Africa needs solid legal frameworks, increased private-sector involvement and better fiscal incentives to plug its annual infrastructure-funding gap of about $100 billion, Boston Consulting Group and Africa Finance Corp. said. The region’s governments have insufficient strategic foresight, political will and policy certainty and numbers of adequately skilled people to improve delivery, the organizations said in a report released Tuesday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Financial systems need upgrading to be sound…

Nigeria Seeks $5.2 Billion From World Bank for Electricity

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is seeking $5.2 billion from the World Bank to expand electricity generation and help the economy recover from its first contraction in 25 years. The bank’s private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, may invest about $1.3 billion in power projects and electricity distribution companies. Its political risk insurer, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, could provide equity and debt of $1.4 billion for gas and solar power programs, according to Power, Works, and…

IMF Sees `Subdued’ Growth Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth outlook is “subdued” as the region’s oil producers delay policy adjustments needed to trigger and sustain expansion momentum, the International Monetary Fund said. The area’s gross domestic product will probably expand 2.6 percent this year from 1.4 percent in 2016, the IMF said in an emailed copy of its Regional Economic Outlook. The modest recovery from the worst performance in more than two decades last year will…