The regulatory cleanup of Ghana’s lower-tier lenders that resulted in 23 companies being declared insolvent and losing their licenses could risk as many as 4,000 direct jobs, according to an industry body, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank announced last week it had revoked the licenses of savings and loans companies as well as finance houses and appointed a receiver to manage their affairs.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV slumped to fresh lows on Monday, even after the embattled global retailer secured a long-awaited restructuring agreement on about 9 billion euros ($10 billion) of debt, Bloomberg News reported. The stock fell 5.5% to 6 euro cents in Frankfurt, where the South African company has its primary listing. In Johannesburg, the shares fell below 1 rand for the first time. Steinhoff’s shares collapsed in late 2017 when the owner of Conforama in France and Pep stores in Europe and Africa became engulfed in an accounting scandal.

A total of 23 Ghanaian financial institutions have their licenses revoked because of insolvency, a statement from Ghana's central bank reached to Xinhua on Saturday, Xinhuanet reported. The 23 institutions were within the savings and loans as well as the finance house categories of the financial sector. Even after a reasonable period within which the Bank of Ghana has engaged with them in the hope that they would be recapitalized by their shareholders to return them to solvency, the statement said, the institutions had remained bankrupt.

A judge in London said on Friday he would grant an Irish-owned company the right to seek to seize some $9 billion (€8.1 billion) in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project, The Irish Times reported. Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas-processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest payments, the sum now tops $9 billion – some 20 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

South Africa’s Truworths International Ltd is considering closing loss-making stores of its UK-based shoe chain Office, joining the growing ranks of retailers to be hit by Britain’s gloomy trading environment, Reuters reported. Office is battling tough conditions in Britain due to uncertainty over Brexit, plus pressures on store-based retailers as shoppers move online. This resulted in the South African-listed clothing, shoes, jewellery and homeware retailer booking a non-cash impairment charge of 97 million pounds ($117.44 million) against Office’s assets.

Scandal-hit Steinhoff said on Wednesday it had refinanced some 9 billion euros ($10 billion) of debt in its overseas operations which include brands such as Poundland in Britain and France’s Conforama, after pushing the deadline date back repeatedly, Reuters reported. “Implementation of the restructuring is a major milestone on our recovery journey, bringing with it the stability that will allow us to turn the page and concentrate fully on maximizing value from our operating companies,” Group Chief Executive Louis du Preez said in a statement.

Former South African Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, who says he refused a 600 million-rand ($39 million) bribe from wealthy businessmen, has written a memoir about his time in office and outlined his vision for how to kick-start the country’s economy, Bloomberg News reported. Jonas, 59, who will join telecommunications company MTN Group Ltd. as chairman in December, alleged three years ago that members of the Gupta family offered him the cash and the finance minister’s post if he followed their agenda.

Steinhoff International, the global retailer that is battling to overcome the legacy of South Africa’s biggest accounting scandal, has pledged to slim its business and sell assets in order to survive heavy debts and shareholder lawsuits, the Financial Times reported. The owner of store chains including the UK’s Poundland and Conforama in France is considering the sales as it tackles “too high” debts of $10bn that were left by its 2017 collapse, Louis du Preez, Steinhoff’s chief executive, said on Tuesday.

An oil discovery in Republic of Congo could produce nearly 1 million barrels of oil per day, a company involved said on Monday, possibly quadrupling the nation’s output and propelling it into the same league as Africa’s largest producers, Reuters reported. Congo’s cash-strapped energy industry has been boosted by major recent finds from Italy’s ENI and France’s Total , lifting an economy hobbled by debt, civil unrest and corruption, and raising output to about 350,000 barrels per day.

Moody’s Investors Service hasn’t said it, but investors already think it: South Africa’s credit is junk, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which rates South Africa’s debt Baa3, the lowest investment level, is due to review its assessment in November. Given Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s financial woes and its implications for government debt, the market is pricing in a downgrade. The premium investors demand to hold South Africa’s dollar bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries is almost twice as much as the average for investment-rated emerging markets.