By Lydia-Claire Halliday, Executive Director, Stakeholder Relations & Strategy, LCH Consultancy Ltd. Africa urgently needs a more extensive and robust aviation network, given the region’s relative lack of alternative long-distance transportation infrastructure The African aviation market has been underserved for a long time. Before 2020, only 9% of Africa’s air traffic was between African countries, the rest being intercontinental. And today, globally, the region accounts for less than 2% of total air traffic despite being home to around 17% of the world’s population. Africa urgently needs a more extensive and robust aviation network, given the region’s relative lack of alternative…
Author: Johnson Akinyi
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Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘C’ from ‘CC’ as well as the issue ratings on outstanding foreign-currency debt. Fitch has also downgraded the issue rating on Ghana’s partially-guaranteed USD1 billion notes maturing in 2030 to ‘CC’ from ‘B-‘. Fitch typically does not assign Outlooks to sovereigns with a rating of ‘CCC’ or below. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary. Key Rating Drivers External Debt Restructuring Announced: The downgrade of Ghana’s LTFC IDR reflects the government’s announcement of a suspension…
Nigeria will start circulating newly redesigned currencies starting December 15, 2022 as President Muhammadu Buhari says there is no going back on the policy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced its planned redesign of N200, N500 and N1,000 notes with the current notes in circulation ceasing to be legal tender by the end of January 2023. The bank described that plan as a move to counter terrorism financing, hoarding of banknotes and the increasing ease and risk of counterfeiting. The change of the banknotes, which comes as the nation prepares for the general election in…
Banks will soon be able to borrow from each other using government debt securities as collateral in reforms aimed at boosting liquidity in the industry while freeing the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) from frequent bailing out of cash-starved institutions. The use of Treasury bonds and bills as security has had minimal success, mainly due to the fact that the ownership of the assets remains with the borrower. This makes it difficult and protracted for creditors to recover their funds in case of default. The key change in the ongoing reforms is for a borrowing bank to surrender…
The African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) has launched an e-platform (The AELP Link), enabling seamless cross-border securities trading among seven African stock exchanges representing 2,000 companies with roughly $1.5 trillion market capitalization. The AELP Link Trading Platform incorporates stock market integration, an order routing system, and market and order-book data sharing. AELP is a joint initiative of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the African Development Bank. Through a grant from Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund (KOAFEC), the Bank is funding ASEA’s phased rollout of the project. The launch took place on 7 December 2022 on the…
By Samuel Oyekanmi | Nairametrics Also available: FR Published: November 15, 2022 2:35 PM Nigeria’s inflation rate accelerated to a new 17-year high of 21.09% in October 2022, marking a 0.32% points increase from 20.77% recorded in September. This is according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Food inflation also surged to 23.72% in the review month from 23.34% in the previous month, while the core inflation rate rose to 17.76% from 17.6%. According to the NBS, the rise in the food inflation rate was caused by increases in…
By Namibia Economist Published: November 15, 2022 3:36 PM The annual inflation rate measured monthly, was 7.1% higher in October 2022 than in October 2021 when it stood at 3.6%. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate increased by 0.2% compared to 0.1% recorded a month earlier. Transport and Food and non-alcoholic beverages components continued to be the main drivers of the annual inflation rate with a contribution of 2.6 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively. Statistician General, Mr Alex Shimuafeni, said that in terms of zonal inflation, the central regions (Zone 1) recorded the highest annual inflation…
Nigeria has maintained its position as Africa’s third-largest crude oil producer for October 2022. This is according to data from the monthly oil market report (MOMR) from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which was released on November 14. The report further showed that Algeria took the top spot as Africa’s largest crude oil producer for October, followed by Angola. Loss of status: In September 2022, Nairametrics reported that Nigeria lost its status as Africa’s foremost crude oil producer after its daily crude oil production dropped below 1 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 972,394 barrels per day. For months, Nigeria…
A lot has changed in the telecoms industry since Globacom was birthed in 2003. As it counts down to its 19th anniversary in a few days, the company and its founder, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Jnr, can look back on their chequered and storied journey and give themselves a robust pat on the back. Indeed, few magnates refine the merchant tropes of endeavor, like Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr. Through grit and hard work, he built his octopoidal conglomerate that employs thousands of Nigerians nay Africans in profitable, futuristic endeavors. If Adenuga’s story reads like a business legend, it is probably because he has always been an enterprise stylist.…
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in its last meeting for the year, has voted to increase the benchmark interest rate (MPR) by 100 basis points to 16.5%, its highest level since 2001. This was disclosed by the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, while reading the communique of the first monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting of the year, on Tuesday 22nd November 2022. The MPC, during the meeting, considered that the further tightening stance will help restore investor sentiment while curbing the rising rate of inflation. Highlights of the Committee’s decision …