Category: Africa
-
Rand enjoys best quarter in more than seven years
Robust economic growth, a soft dollar and subdued borrowing costs helped emerging stocks race towards the 2017 finishing line on Friday as the year’s best performing asset class, while many currencies also looked back on solid gains. MSCI’s emerging equity benchmark rose 0.4 percent on the year’s last trading day, having added 34 percent since…
-
Fuel Supply Improves in Lagos, Scarcity Persists in Abuja
Marketers attribute crisis to NNPC’s $6bn crude-for-product swap deal • Crude oil slips towards $65 as Forties Pipeline moves closer to restart Relief may be on the way for commuters as fuel supply to Lagos shows signs of improvement with queues at filling stations in the metropolis thinning out Tuesday. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had spent…
-
Fuel crisis messes up Christmas in Nigeria
Many motorists and commuters are stranded in Nigeria following an excruciating three-week fuel shortage. Long queues continue to form at petrol stations in major cities, occasioning a hike in pump price in places where the product was available. Many bus stages are jammed with passengers travelling for Christmas celebration, yet many commercial vehicles were held…
-
Kenya: How Imperial Bank’s mega theft stalled Fidelity’s sale
The High Court has relaxed its freeze on the assets of a controversial businessman linked to the theft of Sh44.9 billion in the collapsed Imperial Bank, paving the way for Mauritian lender SBM Holdings to complete acquisition of the troubled Fidelity Bank. The businessman, Firoz Jessa, is one of the shareholders in W. E. Tilley,…
-
Kenya: Banks at crossroads as landscape changes fast
Banks will need to go back to the drawing board if results for the third quarter are anything to go by. The numbers cannot be more revealing; that big players have on average shed up to a quarter of their revenues relative to a similar period a year ago with other previously profitable names sliding…
-
Exports to top Kenyan tea markets drop 15 per cent
Tea exports to major markets in the year to October dropped 15 per cent compared with the same period last year with all the top buyers except Pakistan registering significant decrease. Statistics from the Tea Directorate indicate the exports fell to 351 million kilogrammes (Kg) this year from 441.9 Kg between January and October last…
-
Sh30bn bond hits demand for T-bills
The demand for short-term government paper remained sub-par last week as investors kept eyes trained firmly on this month’s Sh30 billion bond auction, which closes on Wednesday. The new issue, a re-opening of previous 10 and 15-year bonds, is also likely to benefit from a more liquid market after the government moved to release Sh77…
-
Kenya: Safaricom bets on voice identity to rein in fraud
Listed telco Safaricom has introduced voice biometric system aimed at reducing fraud and helping its customers to reduce cases of identity theft. The system, dubbed Jitambulishe, will allow customers to access Safaricom services such as resetting M-Pesa PIN and PUK requests through a faster and less intrusive vetting process. The system aims to cut down…
-
Heineken to open $100MN brewery in Mozambique in 2019
Heineken will open a $100 million brewery in Mozambique, its first production facility in the southern African nation, the brewer said on Monday. The world’s second-largest brewer plans to start production at the 0.8 million hectoliters capacity plant in the capital Maputo in the first half of 2019, it said in a statement. Advertisement Heineken,…
-
Nigeria’s Access Bank’s next frontier
Nigeria’s Access Bank plans to grow its trade payment and settlement service over the next five years as foreign lenders faced with increased regulation at home cut their correspondent banking exposure to West Africa. So-called correspondent banking operations boomed over the last decade as commodity prices spiked and offshore lenders looking to tap into trade…