President Mokgweetsi Masisi wants to increase foreign investment and create more jobs for almost one in five people. Botswana’s new leader wants to shrink the civil service, sell state companies and cut red tape as he targets increased foreign investment. President Mokgweetsi Masisi has identified reducing the southern African nation’s reliance on diamonds and creating…
Fitch Ratings has announced its decision to maintain Eskom Long-Term Local Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and unguaranteed local currency senior unsecured ratings of ‘BB-‘. According to the South African parastatal, the ratings agency has simultaneously maintained the National Long-Term Rating at ‘A(zaf)’ and the National Short-Term Rating at ‘F1(zaf)’. The rating agency has also…
If American, Japanese, and emerging economies’ policymakers had hoped to pressure the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to drop their policies of refusing to fund coal power projects, they were ultimately disappointed. Instead, the World Bank and IMF spring meeting ended on April 22 with the announcement that the World Bank’s capital would…
INFRASTRUCTURE Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) chief economist Khutula Sibanda says Zimbabwe needs around $5 billion annually for trade and finance in the retooling of the industrial sector and infrastructure development. BY SILAS NKALA Sibanda made the remarks yesterday during a meeting of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair on…
The Angolan government has raised $3bn in its second Eurobond issue in international markets with demand from 500 investors based in the US, Europe and Asia reaching nearly $9bn. The deal included two parts: $1.75bn of 10-year bonds with a yield of 8.25% and $1.25bn of 30-year bonds with a yield of 9.375%. The government…
Sub-Saharan African countries could increase tax revenue by an average of 5 percent of gross domestic product — much more than what they receive in international aid — if they reform their tax policies, the International Monetary Fund said. Key steps would be to strengthen value-added tax systems, streamline exemptions and expand coverage of income taxes, the…
Sub-Saharan African nations affected by increasing public-debt levels and non-performing loans must take action to address rising vulnerability, the International Monetary Fund said. About 40 percent of low-income countries in the region are now assessed as being in debt distress or at high risk of this, the IMF said Tuesday. The median level of public…
The African Development Bank is leading talks with Zimbabwe and its creditors to make plans for the nation to pay off some of its arrears so it can restore relations with lenders, said Akinwumi Adesina, the bank’s president. During almost two decades of economic mismanagement the southern African nation’s debt surged to more than 70…
Nigeria plans to issue identity numbers to 70 million citizens by the end of next year, a first step to bringing them into the country’s payments system. The West African nation, which currently holds centralized data for less than 15 percent of its almost 200 million population, will integrate various identity-capturing and verification systems run…