Moody’s Says Nigeria May Keep Several Naira Rates Until 2020

Moody’s Says Nigeria May Keep Several Naira Rates Until 2020

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria will probably maintain its system of multiple exchange rates, which the International Monetary Fund has long-urged it to scrap, until at least early 2020, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Merging the naira’s various rates any sooner might force the government to weaken the currency and raise fuel prices, which would accelerate inflation, the ratings company said. Nigerian monetary and fiscal authorities are likely to wait until investments in oil…

Read More

Nigeria Rate-Cut Hope Lives as Inflation Slows to Two-Year Low

Nigeria Rate-Cut Hope Lives as Inflation Slows to Two-Year Low

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian inflation slowed for a 14th straight month in March, taking consumer-price growth below the benchmark interest rate for the first time in two years and opening the door for a rate cut. Consumer inflation in Africa’s most-populous nation decelerated to 13.3 percent from a year earlier, the lowest rate in two years and below the benchmark rate of 14 percent. Nigeria’s central bank left its main lending rate…

Read More

Nigerian President Buhari Will Seek Second Term in 2019

Nigerian President Buhari Will Seek Second Term in 2019

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to run for re-election in February, ending months of speculation about whether the former military ruler would seek a second term. The announcement of the decision by Buhari, 75, on Monday came at a time of growing criticism of his performance and uncertainty in his ruling All Progressives Congress about his plans. He was in the U.K. for a total of five months last year…

Read More

Shell Suspects Ex-Executive Committed Crime in Nigeria Deal

Shell Suspects Ex-Executive Committed Crime in Nigeria Deal

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc referred a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa Peter Robinson to the Dutch authorities, suspecting he may have committed crimes related to an asset sale in Nigeria. The allegations of criminal misconduct by one of its employees come at a difficult time for Shell. Europe’s largest energy company and several former executives, including Robinson, are already facing a criminal trial in Milan over an alleged bribery…

Read More

Smugglers Cheer as Nigeria Tries to Keep Foreign Rice Away

Smugglers Cheer as Nigeria Tries to Keep Foreign Rice Away

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – At Nigeria’s normally manic border post of Seme, Lasisi Fanu says business has all but ground to a halt. He and other customs agents who help clear goods coming into Africa’s biggest economy from its smaller neighbour Benin say the long lines of trucks loaded with rice that used to jam the crossing have dwindled. The slowdown is a result of import restrictions and tighter border policing as President Muhammadu Buhari seeks to…

Read More

This Is What Africa’s Central Banks Are Debating This Month

This Is What Africa’s Central Banks Are Debating This Month

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Central banks in five major sub-Saharan African economies are scheduled to announce their interest-rate decisions in the next three weeks, including Nigeria if lawmakers get around to approving Monetary Policy Committee nominees. Slower inflation and more stable exchange rates have built a case for looser monetary policy in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria. Economic growth near 1 percent in South Africa and Nigeria, which make up half of…

Read More

Tillerson Heads to Africa With Security, Not Aid, as Focus

Tillerson Heads to Africa With Security, Not Aid, as Focus

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson begins his first official trip to sub-Saharan Africa with a pledge to help shore up trade, civic freedom and good governance in countries that President Donald Trump has harshly criticized. Tillerson arrived on the continent Wednesday with the Trump administration advocating cuts of more than a third in aid to African countries and programs, along with deep reductions to global health initiatives. With several U.S. allies struggling to…

Read More
1 3 4 5 6 7 101