At least eight companies owned by the wealthy Gupta family accused of corrupt ties to former president Jacob Zuma, have filed for protection from creditors, documents showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Indian-born billionaire business associates of Zuma, were accused of using their political connections to win state contracts and influence cabinet appointments, in a report by an anti-graft watchdog in 2016. Zuma and the Gupta brothers deny any wrongdoing.

Lazard Freres SAS is wrapping up talks with the Mozambican government for a planned meeting with creditors, said the bank that’s advising authorities on debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s Eurobonds gained. “We are finalizing our discussions with the authorities and should be able to inform all creditors very shortly,” Michele Lamarche, managing director at Lazard in Paris, said in reply to emailed questions Thursday.

Chad signed a deal with Glencore Plc to restructure more than $1 billion in debt in an agreement that will help the African nation to avoid a financial crunch, Bloomberg News reported. The review was signed on Wednesday and is a “good outcome” for Chad, Guillaume Foucault, a spokesman for the country’s national oil company, said by phone from Paris. Under the terms of the agreement, the loan’s maturity is extended to 12 years while Chad will receive a grace period of two years, said Foucault.

Congo Republic is set to become the latest African country to start debt relief talks with trading houses after borrowing $2 billion (1.43 billion pounds) from merchants such as Trafigura and Glencore but now finding its debt levels unsustainable, sources familiar with the matter said. Trading houses regularly lend money to resource-rich clients in financial distress - be it countries such as Congo, Chad, Morocco or Iraq's Kurdistan region - when other lenders walk away.

It’s been a bad start to the year for Zambia, Bloomberg News reported. Its Eurobonds are the worst-performing debt among emerging-market sovereign issuers, having lost 5.8 percent, according to Bloomberg indexes. On Monday, the kwacha weakened 1 percent against the dollar, the most globally, to its lowest level in almost six weeks. Doubts over whether the government will secure a $1.3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund have resurfaced among investors.

Steinhoff has appointed a former KPMG partner to head restructuring efforts as it tries to rebuild its balance sheet in the wake of an accounting scandal, the Financial Times reported. The South Africa-based retail conglomerate said in January it was looking to appoint an “independent debt restructuring expert” as chief restructuring officer as part of a board overhaul following the departure of its most senior managers.

Recent market turmoil has not deterred relatively risky countries from their debt-raising plans. Kenya has appointed banks to raise 30-year debt — a plan that would make it one of just a handful of sub-Saharan African sovereigns to do so — along with a 10-year bond, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile Egypt is in the market today with a three-tranche deal, offering five-, 10- and 30-year paper. Both deals will be denominated in dollars.

Zambia’s cabinet approved plans to restructure the country’s loans from China after the International Monetary Fund said Africa’s second-biggest copper producer was at high risk of debt distress, Bloomberg News reported. The government will also source financing directly from Chinese lenders rather than through contractors in a bid to cut the cost of borrowing, the presidency said Tuesday in an emailed statement.

Mozambique’s state prosecutor on Monday launched legal proceedings against the managers of the state-owned companies at the heart of a multibillion dollar debt scandal, almost two years after the crisis rocked the southern African nation. The office of Mozambique’s attorney-general said in a statement on Monday that it had opened a case at the administrative tribunal to establish “financial responsibility” for the scandal, in which three companies controlled by the country’s intelligence service hid $2bn of state-backed loans, the Financial Times reported.

Nigeria’s finance minister plans to drag tax defaulters who don’t make use of an amnesty to court as she seeks funds to plug the nation’s $25 billion infrastructure gap, Bloomberg News reported. In the nine months of reprieve ending March, some penitent taxpayers have said “you got me” and cleared arrears without paying interest and or penalties, Kemi Adeosun said in an interview on Tuesday in her office in the capital, Abuja. But some have said “we wish you luck with this, catch us if you can,” she said. Nigeria wants to double its tax to gross domestic product ratio by 2020.