Africa Business News – Read economic news today, South Africa business updates, and latest economy trends and developments.
Senegal’s debt troubles just received another official stamp. The Senegal credit rating has been cut for a fifth straight time, with Moody’s downgrading the country’s foreign-currency ratings on Thursday. What the downgrade says Moody’s lowered Senegal’s foreign-currency senior unsecured and long-term issuer ratings to “Ca” from “Caa2”. It also changed the outlook to stable from […]
TEBA, the century-old company that provides recruitment and other services to mineworkers, will draw on decades of experience to assist SA’s mining companies to gradually ramp up production as lockdown restrictions are eased. The gold and platinum sectors are working with TEBA to return 350,000 miners to the gold and platinum industry as the sector […]
Six months of debt relief has been granted to 25 countries considered the poorest in the world by the International Monetary Fund. The institution will then redirect these funds towards the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. 19 of the 25 are African countries chosen based on an extreme poverty and vulnerability ranking. Oil prices, virus, […]
Recent concessions made by government to relax informal trading restrictions, amid a growing risk of coronavirus infection, highlights the precarious socio-economic situation of low paid workers – not to mention the enduring contradictions of managing an unequal society and economy in South Africa. As the Covid-19 induced economic shutdown tightens its grip, many people must […]
The Pound Sterling South African Rand (GBP/ZAR) exchange rate rallied by 0.8% this afternoon, leaving the pairing trading at around R23.2864. The South African Rand suffered steep losses against the Pound today after a surprise rate cut from the country’s central bank. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) slashed interest rates by 100 basis points […]
The International Monetary Fund, IMF said that Nigeria’s economy will contract by 3.4% in 2020, but rebound with 2.4% growth in 2021. The IMF made this projection in its latest edition of the World Economic Outlook just released at the ongoing Spring Meeting in Washington. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected that Nigeria’s […]
Egypt has called for African countries to be exempt from paying debt interests bilaterally and multilaterally due to the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) Ambassador Alaa Youssef said on Saturday. In an online seminar discussing the pandemic’s economic implications, Youssef said that exempting debt […]
Nigeria will cut its oil production by 1.9 million barrels per day. This will reduce its daily crude oil production to 1.412 million barrels. Abuja is hoping for a $15 rebound in the price per barrel in the short term. This rebound that could bring at least 2.8 billion dollars to the country, according to […]
Ethiopia’s government vowed to continue work on a massive dam that’s stoked tensions with Egypt, even as the Horn of Africa nation contends with the growing spread of the coronavirus. Completing what would be Africa’s largest hydropower reservoir, filling it and producing electricity is a top priority for Ethiopia, State Minister for Finance Eyob Tekalign […]
Nigeria’s hydroalcoholic gel business booms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this edition, we speak with Dr. Stephanie Sodangi, who set up a local gel manufacturing plant in her clinic in Abuja. High demand for sanitary products such as hydro-alcoholic gels and facemasks following the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of startups. In Nigeria, […]
Zimbabwe’s leading fast foods outlet Simbisa Brands has fired its contract workers in an attempt to cut costs as the effects of coronavirus lockdown take a toll on the national economy. The country is now midway through its 21-day national lockdown in an effort to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus. However, according to […]
South Africa’s economy could contract by 2% to 4% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and measures to curb its spread, according to the Reserve Bank. A 21-day nationwide lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the pandemic will reduce the rate of change in gross domestic product for this year by 2.6 percentage […]
Ratings agency Fitch downgraded South Africa’s credit rating further into “junk” territory on Friday, another blow for Africa’s most industrialised economy, which is still smarting from a Moody’s downgrade last week. Fitch lowered its long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘BB’ from ‘BB+” and assigned a negative outlook. The agency cited “the lack of a […]
The management of the Calabar Mall and SPAR has debunked claimed that the mall collapsed. “The Calabar Mall building did not collapse as suggested through fake claims on the internet, and the shops remain open to customers,” it said. Mrs. Egbunu Kemi, the Management of the Mall has stated on record that the External Advertisement […]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday said that monetary contributions to its relief fund under the auspices of Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) stood at N15 billion. CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, said in a statement in Lagos that the donations were from 37 donors, including individuals, banks and other […]
Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, has introduced customer relief initiatives aimed at reducing the unease felt by its customers as a result of the coronavirus global pandemic. The movements of individuals had to be curtailed to discourage physical contact between people as a way of containing the spread of […]
Egypt’s second richest man has urged authorities to order people back to work once a curfew ends, and threatened to commit suicide if the measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus exceed two weeks. In a TV interview widely criticised by labour rights advocates, Naguib Sawiris said Egyptians should go back to work after […]
Social grant recipients will in the next few days make use of many ATMs and retail shops as possible to get their money without incurring high bank charges so they can practice social distancing. This is because banks were expected to “significantly” reduce their charges to increase the number of pay-points the grant beneficiaries can […]
MultiChoice has set aside R80 million to pay their cast, crew and creatives in the industry during Covid-19 and the national lockdown period. Due to production coming to a halt in South Africa, MultiChoice said that it was aware of the financial challenges that will be faced by their employees and freelancers. In a press […]
