Africa

Uganda plans to pull back from variable interest-rate loans after government debt has more than doubled in almost five years because of obtaining costly commercial credit, the East African nation’s Finance Ministry said, Bloomberg News reported. The stock of public debt jumped to 93.4 trillion shillings ($24.7 billion) at the end of last year from 42.2 trillion shillings in June 2019, according to the ministry’s medium-term debt management report. It was up 13.6% year-on-year in 2023 in dollar terms, partly due to Stanbic Bank budget financing.

A Nigerian court on Thursday adjourned a money laundering trial against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives to May 17 after a lawyer for the exchange said he had not been served with documents needed to prepare for the case, Reuters reported. Binance and its executives Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crime compliance, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, have been charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in specialised financial activities without a licence. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Zimbabwe will seek full convertibility of its new currency, the ZiG, as a way to further support the unit and protect it from collapse, according to Mthuli Ncube, the Finance Minister, Bloomberg News reported. The ZiG’s predecessor, the Zimbabwe dollar, couldn’t be exchanged for other currencies, or traded outside the country. The international community has “reacted positively” to the new unit since its launch last month, and asked Zimbabwean authorities to ensure it’s kept stable, according to Ncube.

South Africa's largest cryptocurrency exchange VALR has secured a licence in Poland and eyeing other jurisdictions across the globe, in hopes to take on some of world's crypto giants, its CEO told Reuters. VALR is one of 75 crypto asset service providers that were recently granted licences this year by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to operate in South Africa, a key step in making crypto a mainstream investment option and creating a regulated environment for users.

South Africa is seeking potential minority investors and access to capital markets and loan financing for South African Airways for more rapid expansion, following the collapse of a previous equity deal, the national flag carrier’s interim Chairman Derek Hanekom said on local broadcaster eNCA, Bloomberg News reported. The airline had to revise its expansion plans after talks were scrapped and has now delayed opening more international routes to London, Frankfurt and North America, Hanekom said.

China’s $400 million deal with Niger to pay for oil in advance will help the West African nation’s junta pay debt it’s accumulated since a military coup last year, Bloomberg News reported. China National Petroleum Corp. agreed to make an advance payment for crude purchases from Niger’s Agadem field earlier this month, Radio Television du Niger reported on April 13. The junta will use the proceeds to settle debt payments, Ibrahim Hamidou, head of communications for Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine, said by phone from the capital, Niamey, on Monday.

Ghana and creditors expect to reach an agreement in principle to restructure overseas bonds as soon as the end of May, Bloomberg News reported. A committee of bondholders and representatives for the government are waiting for the International Monetary Fund to approve an updated economic review, which is likely to allow a deal to move forward, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. The two sides are trying to rework about $13 billion of Eurobonds, one of the final steps in the nation’s restructuring process.

Nigeria’s central bank curbed the ability of banks to grant loans as it seeks to reduce market liquidity and help reduce an inflation rate that rose to a 28-year high in March, Bloomberg News reported. The Abuja-based Central Bank of Nigeria cut the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio by 15 percentage points to 50% “to align with the current monetary tightening,” it said in a circular to lenders on Wednesday. The new limit is in line with the banks’ required cash reserve ratio, it added.

Zambia has made good progress in concluding a marathon debt restructuring and is confident of soon striking agreements with its remaining creditors, Bloomberg News reported. “We expect the deal to be done in months,” said Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane. “I am very confident that we have made a lot of progress,” he said on Tuesday. Africa’s second-biggest copper producer — which in 2020 became the continent’s first pandemic-era defaulter — has so far struck deals to revamp $10.1 billion of its liabilities, including with official creditors and eurobond investors.

Nigeria is burning through foreign-exchange reserves at a rate not seen in four years, raising concerns that the central bank is depleting its dollar holdings to support the naira after pledging it would allow the currency to float more freely, Bloomberg News reported. Liquid reserves declined 5.6% since March 18, when the naira started its rebound from record-low levels against the dollar, to $31.7 billion as of April 12, according to Bloomberg’s calculations based on the latest available data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.