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South Africa: UAE, Saudi Arabia brace for economic strategy shake-up
August 24, 2021--South Africa has welcomed a new finance minister at a crucial time for the country's economy
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Enoch Godongwana, the ruling party's head of economic policy as finance minister, in August, after Tito Moboweni, who was well liked by the investment community, decided to resign.
South Africa is reeling from the civil unrest in July that led to the deaths of more than 350 people. The country is also hard-hit by COVID-19, which saw real GDP plunge by 7 percent in 2020. It is expected to rise by 3.1 percent in 2021 but to have annual growth below 2 percent till 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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Source: Zawya.com
AELP Link order platform to boost trading between African exchanges
August 19, 2021--The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) has signed a contract on 30 July to procure an order-routing system to link stockbrokers on seven of Africa's leading securities Exchanges.
The contract is for the design and rollout of the AELP Link technology platform for routing orders and trade confirmations between stockbrokers on the seven bourses.
The Supplier is DirectFN, a global IT firm experienced in capital markets solutions across the Middle East and many emerging and frontier markets, which was awarded the contract after a competitive bidding process that attracted applications from top international suppliers in 18 countries.
The seven exchanges are working together in the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) to boost pan-African investment flows and bring more liquidity to African markets.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
Explosion in electronic payments powers start-up boom in Nigeria
August 19, 2021--Down an alley off Kukawa Street in Lagos Island, across from a building abandoned mid-construction, Paulo Communications does a brisk trade. On an average day, dozens of customers walk past fried food and fresh fruit stands to visit his street-side shop and top up their mobile phones or pay their monthly satellite TV bills.
The shop's biggest business is mobile transactions. It completes dozens of withdrawals, deposits and payments for customers every day, using half a dozen different systems offered by telecommunications giants, big banks and the fintech companies that have made Lagos- Nigeria's commercial capital-Africa's hottest start-up scene, accounting for roughly a fifth of the continent’s total venture capital funding in 2020.
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Source: todayuknews.com
Nigeria: IFC Releases New Report on Gender Balance in Nigerian Workplace
August 14, 2021--A new study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, conducted in partnership with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has rated Nigerian companies better than global average with regards to commitment to gender equality.
The study, "Gender Equality in Nigeria's Private Sector", assessed gender gaps at 30 leading companies listed on NGX using the Equileap Scorecard-a methodology that evaluates gaps across four categories.
The categories namely- corporate leadership, compensation and flexible work, corporate policies to promote gender equality, and efforts on commitment, transparency, and accountability in closing gender gaps.
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Source: allafrica.com
n a world first, South Africa grants a patent listing AI as the inventor
August 8, 2021--The innovation in question involves interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and stack.
At first glance, a recently granted South African patent relating to a "food container based on fractal geometry" seems fairly mundane.
The innovation in question involves interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and stack.
On closer inspection, the patent is anything but mundane. That's because the inventor is not a human being- it is an artificial intelligence (AI) system called DABUS.
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Source: moneyweb.co.za
Nigerian Stocks Shrink Further As Sell Pressure Weighs On Banks' Shares
July 28, 2021--The index is down by 3.67 per cent year to date.
Nigerian stocks eased 0.03 per cent on Wednesday, elongating the loss reported at the previous trading session and raising concerns about how much the promising start to the earnings season, underscored by a string of strong corporate financial results, could transform the market.
Banking sector equities were most hit by the downtrend, and Zenith joined Vitafoam to lead the pullback at individual stock level, a 155 per cent surge in the nine-month period profit of the mattress and furniture manufacturer incapable of saving its share price from declining.
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Source: allafrica.com
Africa: AfCFTA Success Depends On Regional Integration of Public Good-Report
July 21, 2021--The African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) has stated in its African Transformation Report 2021 that countries in the continent should look beyond trade and markets and collaborate in delivering regional public good.
This, it noted was to ensure the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and achieve growth in their respective economies.
The report titled, "Integrating to Transform, stated: "But while past regional integration efforts have often struggled, Africa's transformation requires much more progress on regional integration.
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Source: allafrica.com
Nigeria's Inflation Drops to 17.75 Percent in June-NBS
July 16, 2021--The National Bureau of Statistics says the consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation (rate of change in the increase in prices) increased by 17.75 per cent (year-on-year) in June 2021.
This is said to be 0.18 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in May 2021 (17.93) per cent.
This implies that prices continued to rise in June 2021 but at a slightly slower rise than it did in May 2021).
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 16.51 per cent in June 2021.
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Source: allafrica.com
Southern Africa: South Africa Dependency Threatens Zimbabwe's Economy
July 16, 2021--The violent events that unfolded in South Africa this past week present renewed purpose for some serious soul searching by Zimbabwe's economic decision makers on how to model the economy out of the dependency on its neighbor to the south for raw materials and other essentials, economic experts have said.
South Africa's KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng provinces-two strategic economic areas- burst into mayhem this week as looters ransacked major retail shops, banks and warehouses with loses to businesses expected to peak into billions of Rands.
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Source: allafrica.com
Violence gives South African markets a reality check
July 14, 2021--South Africa unemployment one of highest in the world
South Africa's worst unrest in years threatens to derail one of this year's star emerging market performers and highlights the chronic joblessness and poverty papered over by a short-term export boom.
The rand tumbled as much as 3.4% this month and hit a more than three-month low, stocks of property firms and retailers dropped as much as 7% in a single day and sovereign bonds sold off after more than 70 people were killed in unrest and looting that erupted following the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma.
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Source: zawya.com
