Ghana has made “significant progress” in debt-restructuring negotiations and the latest snag that sent its eurobonds tumbling on Monday will be ironed out in further talks with bondholders, Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam said, Bloomberg News reported. Negotiations that started mid-March resulted in an interim deal last week with international investors holding about 40% of Ghana’s $13 billion of defaulted eurobonds.
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Africa
Resources Per Country
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Congo
- Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Djibouti
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Madagascar
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe, in its latest bid to end the serial slide of the local dollar, has replaced it with a new unit called the ZiG backed by a basket of foreign currency and gold, Bloomberg News reported. Central Bank Governor John Mushayavanhu told a press conference in Harare, the capital, on Friday, that the ZiG — short for Zimbabwe Gold — would be launched on April 8 at an introductory level of 13.56 per dollar and a new interest rate set at 20%. That compares with the 130% on the old unit, which was the highest central bank rate in the world.
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Nigerian authorities asked in court Thursday for cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives to be tried for alleged money laundering and tax evasion, the first legal step following weeks of a criminal investigation into the trading platform, the Associated Press reported. Only Tigran Gambaryan, an American citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, attended the court hearing as Nadeem Anjarwalla, the company’s regional manager remains at large after fleeing custody in late March.
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Zambia is close to reaching debt restructuring deals with some of its remaining commercial creditors following agreements with official lenders and bondholders, said Felix Nkulukusa, secretary to the Treasury, Bloomberg News reported. 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, with $3.3 billion remaining, he said Wednesday in a speech in Lusaka, the capital.
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The World Bank is poised to approve $1.2 billion of budget financing to Kenya before the end of April, unlocking key financing for the East African nation that wants to cut its reliance on commercial debt, Bloomberg News reported. The amount is slightly less than the $1.5 billion that Kenyan authorities had anticipated receiving from the Washington-based lender and follows other disbursements by the International Monetary Fund as well as Trade and Development Bank, a pan-African lender. Kenya had earmarked the World Bank funds to finance its budget in the fiscal year that ends June 30.
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The Standard Group on Wednesday refuted claims that the organization was facing bankruptcy and would be shutting down, Kenyans.co.ke reported. In a statement issued by the Group’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Joe Munene, the media house stated that the information circulating online was purporting a false narrative. “The Standard Group PLC wishes to inform its audiences, customers, suppliers, staff, shareholders and all other stakeholders that information circulating on social media touching on the integrity of the Company, its Management and Staff is fake”, read the statement.
A proposal by France, Denmark and Sweden to restrict used-clothing exports from the European Union could hurt the clothing resale industry in Kenya, which employs 2 million Kenyans, a representative of second-hand clothes sellers said, Reuters reported. The EU exported 1.4 million tonnes of used textiles in 2022, more than twice as much as in 2000 according to U.N. trade data. Exports to developing countries can lead to pollution when clothes that can not be resold end up in dumps, the EU has said.
KCB Group Plc.’s efforts to clean up its loan book of legacy bad debt is being frustrated by government delays in paying suppliers and court injunctions slowing down the sale of collateral to recoup losses, Bloomberg News reported. The Nairobi-based bank with operations across seven African nations posted a 29% jump in gross non-performing loans to 208.3 billion shillings ($1.57 billion) in its full-year earnings.
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A group of Zambia's international bondholders has signed a non-disclosure agreement with the government to discuss a $3 billion debt restructuring proposal, three sources familiar with situation said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The government sent a formal debt rework proposal to the steering committee of the creditor group last week, two of the sources said. Entering into a non-disclosure agreement usually marks the start of formal restructuring talks.
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Ghanaian authorities and international bondholders expect to begin talks this week aimed at a deal to restructure roughly $13 billion of defaulted global debt, Bloomberg News reported. A group representing the private investors and government officials plan to hold meetings to kick off negotiations over the coming days. Creditors entered into non-disclosure agreements with the government this week, signaling a first step in the process. Bondholders are weighing a proposal put forth by the government.
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