BUSINESS - The African Mirror

Feb

25

2024

Egypt announces $35 billion UAE investment on Mediterranean coast

BUSINESS

EGYPT said that it had signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop a prime stretch of its Mediterranean coast that would bring $35 billion of investments to the indebted country over the next two months. The deal with ADQ, the smallest of Abu Dhabi's three main sovereign investment funds, is for the development of the Ras El Hekma peninsula and could eventually attract as much as $150 billion in investments, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a press conference. Such inflows would provide a huge boost to Egypt's crisis-stricken economy as it faces new pressures linked to…

Feb

25

2024

By ALEX LAWLER, NATALIE GROVER and NOAH BROWNING

Europe, Africa oil markets tighten, lending support to futures

BUSINESS

RED Sea shipping delays and OPEC+ supply cuts are tightening physical oil markets in Europe and Africa as well as the Brent crude market structure, lending further support to oil futures prices, according to traders, LSEG data and analysts. A sustained rise in crude prices would lift energy, transportation and manufacturing costs and threaten to unwind some of the recent falls in global inflation, just as major central banks are expected to begin cutting interest rates. On Thursday, the benchmark Brent crude futures market structure hit its most bullish since October. The premium of the first-month contract to the six-month…

Feb

24

2024

By LAMINE CHIKHI

Algeria and Mauritania open border gate to boost trade

BUSINESS

THE presidents of Algeria and Mauritania opened a gate at the border of the two North African countries to strengthen bilateral ties and boost trade. The leaders have also agreed to set up a free trade zone and build an 847-kilometre (526-mile) road that will link the Algerian town of Tindouf to Mauritania's Ezouirat. "Hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers and workers in the public sector and housing sectors are happy," Dida Abdewahab, a Tindouf resident, told Reuters. The agreement comes a few days after OPEC member Algeria announced it would invest $442 million in energy projects in Mali, Niger and Libya.…

Feb

24

2024

By RACHEL SAVAGE and CHRIS MFULA

Zambia’s kwacha is Africa’s best-performing currency in 2024

BUSINESS

ZAMBIA'S kwacha is Africa's best-performing currency against the U.S. dollar so far this year after the central bank sharply tightened monetary policy, but analysts said it would strengthen sustainably only if the country attracts more foreign investment. The kwacha has rallied 13.8% to 22.8 against the greenback in 2024, according to LSEG data, after the central bank raised commercial banks' reserve ratios and then hiked interest rates earlier this month, in a bid to reverse a decline in the currency that had pushed up inflation. "The kwacha's performance this year has been remarkable," said Danny Greef, Co-Head of Africa at research firm…

Feb

24

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

MSF slams US on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die

BUSINESS

THE head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council that medical teams in the Gaza Strip have come up with a new acronym: WCNSF - wounded child, no surviving family. "Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones too," MSF International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the 15-member council. "There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes," he said. "These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they…

Feb

23

2024

By JOE BAVIER

S.Africa’s power sector needs more private investment, Eskom chair says

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's power sector will require increased private sector investment as debt-ridden utility Eskom implements structural reforms and builds critical new infrastructure, the company's chairman told Reuters. Private sector involvement in the power sector is a politically sensitive subject as South Africa prepares for elections in May, and the chairman made clear that state-owned Eskom would not be moving towards privatisation. "Private sector participation, yes, but the asset is going to end up with the government," Mteto Nyati, the chairman of Eskom's board of directors, said in an interview. Africa's most industrialised nation is weathering its worst power crisis on…

Feb

22

2024

By SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Africa’s growth trend signals return to faster expansion

BUSINESS

ELEVEN of the world's 20 fastest-growing economies will be in Africa in 2024, according to new forecasts from the African Development Bank (AfDB), despite recent shocks like inflation, increased debt and higher interest rates. The 2024 outlook adds some zing to a solid if patchy performance in 2023, when 15 African states posted growth rates of over 5%. Growth in 2024 will push the combined continental GDP to around US$3.5 trillion, according to German data research firm, Statista. Economic acceleration across the continent stems from structural shifts, enhanced infrastructure, and investment-driven productivity, signalling a robust continental revival. “Growth in Africa’s…

Feb

22

2024

By KOPANO GUMBI, OLIVIA KUMWENDA-MTAMBO and NELLIE PEYTON

South Africa taps contingency reserves to limit rising debt

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's government will draw down $8 billion over the next three years from contingency reserves held at the central bank to limit rising debt, the National Treasury said. Africa's most industrialised economy has barely grown in over a decade, with rising debt-servicing costs eating up a growing share of the national budget. The bleak economic backdrop is looming large over a general election due on May 29 that could see the governing African National Congress party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago. Presenting the 2024 budget, Finance Minister Enoch…

Feb

22

2024

By BIRD STORY AGENCY

Nigerian E-payments eclipse South Africa’s 2022 GDP, in latest surge

BUSINESS

WHEN the Nigerian Central Bank introduced newly designed currency notes in November 2022 and a month later put a cap on the maximum amount of hard cash that individuals and corporations could withdraw, the idea was to tame money laundering in the country. During that year’s Christmas festive season and in the run-up to the 2023 Nigerian presidential election in February 2023 –– two high spending seasons –– the country was hit with shortages of the naira currency. Nigerians, however, appear to have found solutions to the problem, according to official statistics. In December 2023 alone, 968 million transactions took…

Feb

21

2024

By KOPANO GUMBI and ANAIT MIRIDZHANIAN

South African labour market recovery stalls months before election

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's unemployment rate rose in the fourth quarter of last year, bucking a trend where jobs tend to be added around the holiday season as a labour market recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic ground to a halt. Analysts said the rise in the official unemployment rate to 32.1% from 31.9% in the third quarter painted a dismal picture months before the country is due to hold national and provincial elections. The rand extended losses on the data in cautious trade before Wednesday's 2024 budget. A presentation by the statistics agency showed community and social services, construction, agriculture and trade sectors contributed…