Africa

Mozambique won a fraud case over a $2 billion bond scandal that embroiled Credit Suisse and created a financial crisis for the southern African nation, Bloomberg News reported. After a three month trial, a London judge ruled that Mozambique was defrauded in a controversial maritime project meant to finance the construction of a new coastal patrol and a tuna fishing fleet. The government-backed fundraising was plagued by corrupt deals, with hundreds of millions of dollars looted, while much of the debt was kept hidden from bondholders and other lenders.

Ethiopia’s central bank allowed the nation’s currency to trade freely, a key reform needed to secure more than $10 billion of funding and debt relief it’s been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund. The birr plunged. The National Bank of Ethiopia permitted banks to buy and sell foreign currency at freely negotiated rates, according to a directive on its website, Bloomberg News reported.

Ethiopia’s official creditors have granted financing assurances to the country to help fast-track approval of a new loan by the International Monetary Fund’s executive board, Bloomberg News reported. Members of an official creditor committee held a meeting last week to approve the financing assurances, according to two of the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Financing assurances mean that bilateral creditors such as the Paris Club and China provided certainty that they will restructure their loans to Ethiopia in a way that’s consistent with the fund’s program.

Zambia’s proposed ban on charging foreign currency in local transactions — punishable with 10-year jail terms — might defeat its own purpose, according to the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank of Africa’s second-biggest copper producer in June unveiled the plans to curb increasing dollarization in the economy that it said blunts its tools to fight inflation. Businesses have already pushed-back on proposed regulations calling them “punitive” and warning that they may actually fuel price growth.

South Africa’s central bank kept interest rates on hold in a split decision, with two of the six policymakers favoring a cut which could signal a shift toward easing as soon as September, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary policy committee left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a 15-year high of 8.25% for a seventh consecutive meeting, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said in a virtual press conference Thursday. He said the two MPC officials who favored a cut wanted to lower rates by 25 basis points while the other four wanted to keep rates on hold.

The African Development Bank said Thursday it had approved a $1 billion loan to South Africa's state-owned rail and ports company, Transnet, the Associated Press reported. The 25-year loan was wholly guaranteed by the South African government and will help finance the first phase of a $8.1 billion investment plan for Transnet to improve the country's ailing rail and port infrastructure, the bank said.

Nigeria’s annual inflation quickened for an 18th straight month, raising the prospect of another interest-rate increase when the central bank meets next week, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 34.2% in June from 34% a month earlier, according to data published on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The median estimate of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey was 34%. The main drivers of the acceleration were higher rental, transport and grain costs.

Zimbabwe’s banks support adopting the ZiG as the nation’s sole currency before the current target date of 2030, provided the economic stability which the bullion-backed unit has delivered is maintained, Bloomberg News reported. Bankers Association of Zimbabwe President Lawrence Nyazema said the availability of the ZiG — which stands for Zimbabwe Gold — will improve as the nation boosts its foreign currency and bullion holdings. “We committed to coming up with a roadmap which would lead us to having a mono-currency by 2030,” Nyazema said in an interview.

Tanzania’s Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) has disclosed finalising the liquidation of the defunct telecom provider Sasatel after it confirmed that the telco could neither continue operation nor settle its debts, TechPoint.africa reported. Hydrox Industrial Services Limited, an industrial service provider based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was also named.