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Snapshot on the African Economy as @ 240622

Jun 24, 2022   •   by   •   Source: United Capital   •   eye-icon 1242 views

Anglophone West Africa


Nigeria

  • The Federal Government and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) have signed a $40.0mn intervention fund for women in the Oil and Gas sector to increase women’s participation. This fund is made available through the NCDMB-NEXIM Bank collaboration and the $300.0mn Nigerian Content Initiative Fund. The Bank of Industry will manage the fund. 
  • Dr Ezra Yakusak, the Chief Executive officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), reiterated that the NEPC is targeting a 40.0% increase in the Nations exports on the back of the launch of Trade houses in Togo and Egypt.
  • According to media reports and reality, petrol scarcity worsened in key Nigerian states, mainly Lagos and Abuja, with long queues remaining unabating in the past week, as distributors express concerns over the cost burden. For context, petrol price per litre in the black market is around N300/litre.
  • The Federal Government has consummated a tripartite agreement with the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) to commit $557.0mn to construct rural roads across 13 states.
  • A total of 53,730km of rural roads would be constructed before the project, effective March 2021.
  • At a press briefing, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expressed concern over the Federal government’s decision to block foreign airlines from repatriating $450.0mn of revenue from ticket sales to their respective countries.
  • The FGN Power Company’s recently published report revealed the funding requirement for the first phase of the Presidential Power Initiative is c.N992.0bn. Phase one is set to raise power generation to 7,000MW.


 Ghana

  • Olivier Langrand, the Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, appealed to the government to increase its budgetary allocation for biodiversity conservation.
  • The United States Department of Commerce’s recent projections estimates the value of trade between Ghana and the US to double by 2024. The current value of trade stands at $2.7bn
  • The Ghana Statistical Service has said the country recorded a GDP growth rate of 3.3% in Q1-2022. The agricultural sector experienced the highest growth of 5.6%
  • The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in a recent statement to Parliament on Covid -19 expenditure, highlighted The Government mobilised GH¢ 18.19bn out of the programmed GH¢ 19.3bn meant for the impact of the pandemic on households and businesses.
  • The Bank of Ghana recently released a report revealing that the nation’s interest payments hit GH¢10.6bn in the Q1-2022, with foreign payments accounting for 17.3%
  • Recent reports revealed that the Nation spends $2bn on importing food annually despite efforts to boost the agricultural sector through the YouStart programme.


 
 
Francophone West Africa


Ivory Coast

  • Investors pledged $26.1bn to the nation for its development finance initiative. The  World Bank pledged the highest amount of $8.7bn, followed by the European Union with €6bn.
  • In addition, the African Development Bank (AfDB) pledged $4.3bn. While, France, the Islamic Development Bank and the West African Development Bank pledged €4bn, €2bn and €1bn, respectively.
  • According to Reuters, the recent downpour in most cocoa-growing regions will boost the development the next October to March main crop.


 Senegal

  • The Liberia of government, through the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, has signed a partnership agreement with the government of Senegal through its Research Institute, "Senegalese Institute of Agriculture Research and the Oceanographic Research Center of Dakar Thiaroye (ISRA/CRODT)".
  • The purpose of the agreement is to conduct a comprehensive stock assessment in Liberia's territorial waters is to ascertain the commercial viability of the fishing sector, map out the fishing ground/ hot biodiversity zone within its ocean space as well as identify the quantity and commercial value per individual fish specifies


 
 
East Africa


Kenya

  • Fahari Aviation has signed a letter of intent with Eve Air Mobility, a unit of Eve Holding, for electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles to fly people and cargo. The agreement includes joint studies to develop and scale the urban air mobility market and a business model for cargo drone operations in Kenya.
  • Extracts from the recently released Kenyan M3 Money Supply report by the Central Bank of Kenya disclosed a 4.7% y/y climb in the nation’s M3 money supply in Mar-22, as the Private sector credit growth accelerated to 11.35%, up by 55bps from 10.8%.
  • According to the Central Bank of Kenya, weekly foreign reserves declined 1.2% w/w last week from $8.21bn to $8.11bn.
  • According to the National Treasury, the dollar appreciation has increased Kenya’s cost of debt servicing by KSh300.0bn in the fiscal year ending this month.
  • In further context, the Dollar makes up 66.0% of the country’s external debt, followed by the Euro at 19.0%, the Japanese Yen and the Chinese Yuan 6.0% a piece, as of June.
  • According to Kenya’s Bankers Association, the Kenyan economy is receiving more dollars now than it did in the pre-Covid era. However, soaring commodity prices and increased importer appetite for FOREX continue to shrink FOREX supply.
  • According to media reports, the commissioning of Kenya Electricity Generating Co.’s Olkaria I unit 6 plant boosts the nation’s geothermal capacity to 42.0%. Furthermore, the Kenyan Power Generation Authority (KenGen) sets out to seek a license for an 83.3MW Geothermal Power plant.
  • According to the auction manager, Tea Brokers East Africa, the average tea price in Africa declined to $2.16/kg in the last auction (20th – 22nd June) at the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, from $2.23/kg in the previous week, down by 3.1%. For further context, about 70.0% of the 13.3mkg on offer was sold, as the price dropped for the third consecutive week.


 Rwanda

  • According to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, the country’s GDP rose 7.9% y/y in Q1-22 and its Q4-21 print of 10.3%.


 Tanzania

  • Last week, the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance presented the 2022-23 budget speech to the Parliament. The budget speech includes measures that would establish a 2% tax rate on payments made to foreign digital service providers.
  • Tanzanian billionaire, Mohammed Dewji, plans to invest at least $1bn to expand his business and take on rivals, including Coca-Cola Co. and Unilever, in the East African country.


  Uganda

  • According to Bloomberg, Uganda has started collecting taxes for non-resident technology platforms offering electronic services locally as it seeks to widen its tax base.
  • According to the Ugandan Revenue Authority, platforms such as Mata Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram and companies including YouTube Inc., Alpabet Inc., and Twitter Inc. are liable to pay 18.0% value-added tax.
  • According to the country’s Finance Ministry, Uganda's imports and exports receipts declined 10.0% m/m and 6.8% m/m to $572.1mn and $344.4mn, with a stock of outstanding credit rising 0.2% m/m to more than 19.1tn shillings.
  • Liaoning Hongda Enterprises, a closely held Chinese company, plans to start production at Uganda’s most significant gold deposit in June next year.

 

Southern Africa


South Africa

  • South Africa’s government and national airline are being sued by a little-known investment firm, Toto Investment Holdings Pty Ltd., which wants the sale of a majority stake in the carrier scrapped and re-ran due to a lack of transparency. For context, the deal amounted to a cumulative $3.0bn.
  • According to local media, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has approved bids by private companies to construct 1,800MW of wind and solar power on 18 parcels of land around its coal-fired plants in the eastern Mpumalanga province.
  • According to Bernstein, primary iron ore miners will ship 299.1m tons in Q2-22, up by 11.0% q/q and -1.4% y/y.
  • Novartis AG will spend $250mn in a five-year commitment to developing new medicines for malaria and other neglected tropical diseases.
  • Furthermore, the spending spans 2021-2025, including $100mn to research and develop medicines for Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, dengue and cryptosporidiosis and $150mn for next-generation medicines to combat malaria, as well as a new formulation of a malaria medicine that could be given to infants.
  • According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s May consumer price index climbed more than expected, to print at 6.5% y/y vs 6.1% y/y estimated. On a m/m basis, South Africa’s CPI rose 0.7% m/m vs the 0.3% m/m estimated.
  • According to Bloomberg, South Africa's inflation rate accelerated to 6.5% in May on surging fuel and food costs, breaching the upper band of the central bank's target for the first time in more than five years.
  • According to Alok Sharma, the president of the COP26 climate talks, other nations and philanthropic organisations want to join the $8.5bn climate finance deal offered to South Africa by the UK, US, Germany, France and the European Union. 
  • Which could, in essence, increase the amount of money South Africa will receive ad assist it in transitioning away from coal.


 Zambia

  • Zambia’s state-owned power utility, Zesco, signed a bulk-supply agreement with Copperbelt Energy, according to an emailed statement from the Lusaka Securities Exchange.


 Zimbabwe

  • According to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Zimbabwe’s corn crop will decline to 1.6m tons, raising the need for imports to maintain strategic reserves of the nation’s principal food crop. Important to note is the fact that many factors contributed to the drop in production, including sub-optimal weather conditions, high input costs and macro-economic challenges.
  • According to Bloomberg, Zimbabwe is considering utilising gas to cure tobacco, the nation’s biggest cash crop, to curb deforestation.
  • According to the Governor of the Central Bank of Zimbabwe, authorities are seeking to halt loan arbitrage, following an investigation of 15 entities that found the practice was rife. The new rules will come into effect from July 1.


 Angola

  • According to the Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, Angola’s May Luanda consumer price index climbed to print at 24.4% y/y, vs its 25.8% y/y print in April, down by 1.4ppts.
  • According to Jornal de Angola, Angolan authorities plan to recover at least $50 billion in stolen assets over the next five years. The authorities have already identified and seized more than $6bn worth of assets abroad.
  • Angola postponed the opening of a new international airport to the end of next year. This is being the fourth project delayed.


 
 
Central Africa


Cameroon

  • Samuel Donatien Nengue, The Fund Director of the Cocoa and Coffee Development Fund, announced the disbursement of CFA1.2 bn inputs to about 500 producers.
  • According to the amending finance act, the new budget aims at curbing inflation in the country. The government plans to grant CFA40bn (vs the initial CFA15 bn) for subsidies of "necessities".
  • The Cameroonian Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) announced it had collected CFA965.2 bn between January and May 2022. Compared to the same period last year, this increased by 14.7% (+ CFA123.5 bn). 


 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

  • Congolese Secretary-General for Defence Isidore Kaumbu Yankole met with Chairperson of the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (AOI) Abdel Moneim Al-Terras to discuss joint committees aimed at strengthening and advancing cooperative relations between the two countries and developing economic and trade cooperation.

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