Africa

The International Monetary Fund is open to renegotiating Ghana’s $3 billion financing program with the incoming administration provided accompanying reforms aren’t jeopardized, Bloomberg News reported. “IMF-supported programs are developed collaboratively with each country’s authorities,” a spokesperson for the Washington-based lender said in response to emailed questions.

Zambia and France signed a bilateral debt restructuring agreement, a key step in a protracted process that started when the southern African nation defaulted four years ago, Bloomberg News reported. The deal is part of Zambia’s efforts to revamp about $13 billion in external debt after it became the first African nation to default during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. “Three years ago, Zambia was a basket case,” Zambian Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said at the signing ceremony on Sunday in Lusaka, the capital.

Uganda’s central bank maintained its key lending rate at 9.75%, citing easing inflation amid increased investment in the country’s fledging oil-and-gas industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. Uganda’s economic outlook remains positive, strengthened by inflows into the oil industry, where France’s TotalEnergies and China’s Cnooc Ltd are developing a 230,000 barrels-a-day crude project. These investments are strengthening the local currency, easing imported inflation, Bank of Uganda Deputy Governor Michael Atingi-Ego said in a statement.

South Africa’s State airline is being approached by banks keen to discuss lending the carrier money, aided by a turnaround in the company’s finances, interim Chief Executive Officer John Lamola said, Bloomberg News reported. South African Airways (SAA) needs to finance a growth strategy that envisages its fleet more than doubling to 43 planes over the next five years. The company is constrained from seeking funds from the government, which is limiting bailouts to state-owned enterprises as it focuses on stabilising the nation’s debt.

South Africa’s central bank lowered borrowing costs for a second successive meeting and said its modeling showed further cuts were in the offing, but that the outlook remains highly uncertain, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers cut the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%, Governor Lesetja Kganyago told reporters at a briefing north of Johannesburg on Thursday. That was in line with expectations of all 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

South Africa’s Treasury plans to withhold funds from five municipalities next month over their unpaid water bills, part of an effort to compel local governments to pay for basic services, Bloomberg News reported. The Treasury will invoke a law allowing the authorities to block the payment of a so-called equitable share of money that’s allocated to municipalities to pay for services including water and electricity, according to a presentation by the department in parliament on Tuesday.

Ghana’s financial authorities are reviewing restrictions imposed on pensions funds that limit their investments in offshore assets, Bloomberg News reported. The National Pensions Regulatory Authority previously introduced a requirement that pension funds seek authorization before buying foreign assets as a way to preserve foreign-exchange. The measure was implemented after Ghana began a restructuring of its debt, Nana Akua Asare, a spokeswoman for the NPRA, said by phone on Tuesday.

Kenya’s economy is on the mend and the country is unlikely to need further assistance from the International Monetary Fund, according to the head of President William Ruto’s economic council, Bloomberg News reported. Kenya signed a four-year, $3.6 billion financing deal with the IMF amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. That program expires in April and both Kenya’s Treasury and an IMF head of mission in the country have confirmed that talks about a new one have begun.

South Africa’s government is still considering whether to adopt a new fiscal anchor that will provide a sustainable long-term path for public finances, despite opposition from within the country’s biggest political party, Bloomberg News reported. The National Treasury said it is consulting with academics, international experts and other interested parties “to make inputs on fiscal-anchor policy options.” A discussion document will be released by the end of March, according to the budget update released in Cape Town on Wednesday.