Category: INTERNATIONAL
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Etisalat Nigeria chairman resigns after debt talks collapse -sources
The chairman of Etisalat Nigeria, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, has resigned from the telecoms company after talks to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan collapsed, prompting a major foreign shareholder to exit the business, two company sources told Reuters. Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala said on June 23 it had pulled out of Etisalat Nigeria after the…
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Kenya:Private sector credit growth sinks to 10-year low
Commercial banks are lending to private sector at the lowest pace in more than a decade, leaving key economic and job growth drivers such as manufacturing and agriculture struggling for funding, newly released data shows. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that lending to the private sector expanded by a paltry 3.3 per cent…
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Mozambique creditors: government not bound by loan guarantees
Holders of Mozambique’s sovereign dollar bonds said on Thursday the government had no reason to honour guarantees on loans given to state-owned firms, which they said should be liquidated to clean up government finances. Debt-ridden Mozambique released on Saturday a forensic audit report into $2 billion worth of loans made to tuna fishing company EMATUM,…
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Kenya: County investment forums have wasted millions, forum told
Counties may have wasted millions of shillings in investment forums since Kenya lacks a legal framework to guide governor-foreign investor engagements. A one-day forum convened to discuss the Kenya Investment Policy heard there was an urgent need to empower counties to directly attract foreign investments including implementation of crucial projects on private-public partnership arrangements. Embu…
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Zambia: World Bank expects faster economic growth, warns of rising debt
Zambia’s economy is expected to grow by 4.1 percent in 2017 and by close to 5 percent by 2019, the World Bank said on Thursday, but the global lender also warned that stricter spending controls were needed to ease the country’s large debt burden. “The government has started to reduce the large stock of expenditure…
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Tanzania laws would allow govt to tear up mining, energy deals
The Tanzanian government submitted three bills to parliament on Thursday that would allow it to force mining and energy companies to renegotiate their contracts, the latest in a string of moves that have alarmed foreign investors. It was not immediately clear how the proposed renegotiation of contracts would affect a planned $30 billion gas project,…
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Gambia proposes 6% budget cut for 2017 in bid to contain debt
Gambia’s government on Thursday proposed a 2017 budget of 12.24 billion dalasi ($266.8 million), down 6 percent from last year, as it seeks to rein in public debt that ballooned under longtime strongman Yahya Jammeh. Under Jammeh, compelled to quit earlier this year by threat of force from regional armies after losing an election, public…
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State in fresh pension scheme rollout pledge
The Public Service ministry has said it will roll out the contributory pension scheme for government workers this year, a plan that has been in the offing since 2012. Public Service secretary Sicily Kariuki said the ministry was working to have the scheme in place by the end of the year. “This year the National…
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Nigeria’s crude account one of world’s least transparent – NRGI
Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account tied for the world’s most poorly governed sovereign wealth fund, according to a report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) released on Wednesday. The $2.4 billion account was ranked alongside the Qatar Investment Authority as the worst in terms of oversight and transparency in NRGI’s index of resource management. NRGI…
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Rwanda: Moroccan Bank Expresses Interest in Bank of Kigali
Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire is currently in negotiations with the Bank of Kigali on the possibility of acquiring a stake in the local bank. Bank of Kigali’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Diane Karusisi confirmed the development, saying the Moroccan bank has expressed interest which they are evaluating to determine how well it fits within their…