Zambia’s currency (kwacha) has become the world’s best-performing currency since Hakainde Hichilema was announced the winner of the August 12 presidential poll. The value of the kwacha rose by 7.8% this week to 17.92 against the U.S. dollar, the best performance out of more than 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It’s rally wiped out the…
For years, economists have called on African governments to offer tax incentives to global firms as a way of boosting foreign direct investment (FDI). Countries such as Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Bangladesh are touted as examples of why this model works, despite their different underlying contexts. Nevertheless, Malawi tried this framework in its entirety,…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been given the greenlight by a Federal High Court in Abuja to freeze the accounts of Nigerian investment-tech companies Bamboo, Chaka, Risevest and Trove. The order is limited to six months pending investigations to be carried out by the bank. CBN had sought temporary freezing of the bank…
In June, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that it will launch its digital currency by the end of 2021, with a pilot scheme running from October 1st. Digital currencies are not a new phenomenon. They are becoming increasingly popular as a response to the global rise of digital payment solutions. The rise of…
Trading in Southern Africa is set to become faster and easier, following the introduction of the region’s first cross-border e-payment solutions that taps into a market characterized by inaccessible formal banking systems. BankservAfrica, a Johannesburg-based clearing firm, is behind the establishment of the project dubbed Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB). TCIB allows for…
Mpesa is a word ingrained in every Kenyan’s lingua franca. The mobile money service that was founded in 2007, and run by telecommunication giants Safaricom, is a force of nature that has led the country to top the world in this sector. It is this dominance that has in turn fuelled the rise of another…
The Central Bank of Nigeria will no longer sell foreign exchange to Bureau Du Change operators, accusing the parallel market of becoming a conduit for illicit forex flows and graft. In announcing the move, the regulator said it will sell dollars and other foreign currencies directly to commercial banks, which have been mandated to sell…
Despite battling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe’s economic resilience was on show as government authorities released data on inflation and economic growth this week. According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZNSA), consumer prices climbed 56.37% from a year earlier, compared with 106.6% in June. The last time the Southern African nation’s inflation…
The world’s biggest seven economies and multilateral partners including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have announced plans to collectively invest $80 billion in Africa’s private sector over the next five years. The funds, according to one of the members of the G7 group United…
Ghana’s inflation rate rose to 7.8% in June, the Government Statistician Samuel Kobina announced on Wednesday, driven by transport and food items. Food contributed 41.8% to overall inflation while transport contribution increased from 16.5% last month to 18.1%. “Inflation for June 2021 indicates that the six-month continuous decline in food inflation has been reversed by…
Just as South African authorities were gearing for a new approach to the trading of bitcoins and other virtual assets in Africa’s most industrialized country, two brothers have been accused of disappearing with $3.6 billion from a top bitcoin site. If confirmed, Africrypt’s, the platform ran by the Ameer and Raees Cajee, losses would rank…
(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, June 28th 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1655965/8770436) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…
(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, June 21st 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6N51Sqn8Jzs06kk8j47Owk?si=EQSpY52YSEmks9-Y-p0kFA&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A0iXz0YJU6dWxAxjKHCO8W8&dl_branch=1&nd=1) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…
Global remittances to sub-Saharan Africa slumped by 12.5% to $42 billion in 2020 from $48 billion in 2019 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report by the World Bank and Knomad reveals. The decline has been attributed to movement restrictions introduced in most countries around the world and a rise in unemployment…
Kenyan 2021-2022 national budget has increased allocation to the security sector by Sh6 billion ($60 million), bucking a trend that has endured over the last decade. According to the Sh3.63 trillion budgetary estimates presented to Parliament by the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, the government is planning to spend a huge Sh340 billion on internal…
In a historic first in the continent, Senegal’s government has announced that it will allocate $836 million in proceeds from a 16-year Eurobond to a new fund created to solve youth related issues raised in protests that engulfed the West African nation earlier this year. The fund aims to address youth unemployment by supporting the…
(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, May 31st 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Fywfw2gGqK3VK72Zu3Jof?si=cF9tgqY0Q5Kh_6964ZoIGA&nd=1) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…
Uganda will receive a $1 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund as the East African country grapples with economic difficulties due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and political instability that has rocked the country since last year. The loan provided to Uganda comes just four days after the Washington-based lender agreed to provide $1.5…
At 77, Congo’s President Sassou Nguesso is four times older than the average Congolese, whose median age is 19, according to UN figures. He’s been in office for more than 36 years, and on Tuesday, he was announced the winner of an electoral poll that international observers, religious leaders and the opposition unanimously agreed was…
Despite being promised an IMF bailout over a year ago, Equatorial Guinea is still waiting for the funds it hoped would revive its struggling economy. Africa’s only Spanish speaking country has been hit by a slump in oil prices since 2014 that further escalated when the pandemic began last year. The economy has shrank in…