African Markets Daily

· The AU aims to use G20 seat as an opportunity to call on rich nations to honour their promises to tackle climate change.

· South Africa plans to prioritize its economic relationship with Kenya to boost trade and investment

· South African public service workers get ready to strike

· IMF approves $433 million financial aid for Kenya

· Tanzania’s president will present an $18 billion plan to build renewable power generation in Southern Africa at talks in Egypt.

· Petra Diamonds has suspended operations at its Williamson mine in Tanzania.

· Pilot strike spurs grounds Kenya Airways.

• Ghana's central bank   kept its interest rate unchanged at 19%.
• The European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS says it will replace the gas from Russia with Nigeria gas due to the invasion in Ukraine.
• Mozambique extends suspension of Standard Bank from forex market for another year.
• Anglo American Platinum reported a 43% fall in half-year profit due to weaker platinum group metal (PGM) prices and lower volumes compared with record sales a year ago.

Ghana to and ask IMF for help for its economy. South Africa extends daily power cuts for a week

· Ghana - will hold formal talks with the International Monetary Fund on a support package. Until now, Ghana, had refused to seek IMF support to rescue an economy crippled by the pandemic, rampant inflation and a depreciating currency, despite analysts warning that; it is close to a debt crisis.

· South Africa’s state power utility, Eskom, says it would extend daily power cuts all through the week as generation capacity shortage continues.

· Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali, after its military rulers proposed a 24-month transition to democracy and published a new electoral law.

- A subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s state-owned power company has signed a $110 million syndicated loan with continental trade finance bank AfreximBank.

- South African retailer, Pepkor, majority owned by Steinhoff, said headline earnings jumped to ZAR5 billion ($320.1 million), up from ZAR2.3 billion a year ago.

- South Africa’s  National Institute For Communicable Diseases warns of an uptick in SA's cases as fourth wave looms

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- Nigeria’s Communications Commission says MTN Nigeria’s application to renew its operating license for another ten years is still undergoing regulatory processing. The Nigerian Communications Commission  that reports that MTN Nigeria’s application had already been granted are incorrect.

- Egypt’s president has vowed to raise the price of government-subsidized bread. It would be the latest in a series of austerity measures taken by his administration in recent years to overhaul the country’s economy. President Abdel Fattah El-sissi offered no further details on the amount or timing of the price increase. He said the increase would help his government cover the cost of meals provided to the country’s school children. This is the first time the Egyptian government revisits the price of bread issue since 1977 when then president Anwar Sadat reversed a price increase in the face of riots. Bread is currently sold at 0.05 egyptian pounds ($0.0032)

Ghana is seeking parliamentary approval to borrow as much as $1.7 billion in order to accelerate oil and gas exploration by acquiring and developing assets. The investment push comes after Exxon Mobil pulled out of an offshore prospect in May.

South African manufacturing activity shrank at its fastest rate in 14 months in July, weighed down by tighter coronavirus lockdown restrictions and civil unrest.

The Bank of Botswana’s (bob) latest business expectations survey reveals that companies  are upbeat about economic activity over the next year compared with the previous survey’s results. Companies now expect that real GDP will increase by 2.9% in 2021 compared with their previous expectation of 2.2%. Despite the overall improvement in the outlook, it is still significantly less optimistic than the forecasts of the ministry of finance and economic development which expected growth of +8.8%,  and IMF forecast +8.3%.  

South Africa’s GDP contracted by 7% in 2020. The contraction is in line with market expectations. Debmarine Namibia  reported a 13% drop in production to 1.125 million carats last year as demand slumped during the covid-19 pandemic.  Zambia’s cabinet approved a economic stimulus package financed through a covid-19 bond in an effort to alleviate the pandemic’s impact.

Zimbabwe lifts its main lending rate to 40%. from 35% previously in a bid to reduce excess liquidity and control speculation in its foreign currency market. Nigeria’s economy unexpectedly came out of a recession in the fourth quarter as restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus were eased.

The  World Bank lays out loan conditions to South Africa’s government  in order to access the $2-billion loan. S&P Global Ratings affirms Mozambique’s foreign currency rating to stable. Nigeria’s manufacturing sector contracts for sixth consecutive month.