South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said there would be no interest-rate cuts until inflation is brought under control, remaining resolute despite calls for him to do so ahead of national elections, Bloomberg News reported. “Rates are where they are because inflation is what it is,” Kganyago said in an interview with Bloomberg in Sao Paulo on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs and central bank governors. “The task of taming inflation is not yet done.

Africa's public debt will stay above pre-pandemic levels in 2024 and 2025, with many countries still at risk of falling into debt distress as they continue to struggle to service international loans, a U.N. official said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Addressing a United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA) conference in Victoria Falls, the agency's macroeconomics and governance director Adam Elhiraika said eight countries were in debt distress, while 13 were "expected to be at risk of debt distress".

Nigeria’s central bank, in its first policy meeting since July, announced a supersized increase in interest rates to tackle runaway inflation and stem the collapse in the country’s currency, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Olayemi Cardoso and his other 11 monetary policy committee colleagues on Tuesday raised the benchmark rate by 400 basis points to 22.75%. That exceeded the 21.25% median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Nigeria ordered telecommunications companies and other internet service providers in the West African nation to block access to cryptocurrency trading platforms, a presidential spokesman confirmed, Bloomberg News reported. The directive affects websites including those operated by Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, which are popular in Africa’s most populous nation where Nigerians use crypto as a hedge against frequent devaluation of the naira. In a statement to Bloomberg News, Binance confirmed that some users in Nigeria were experiencing issues accessing its website.

Senegalese President Macky Sall’s pledge to step down at the end of his term was cheered by investors, following weeks of turmoil sparked by his attempt to stay in power, Bloomberg News reported. Prices on Senegal’s dollar eurobonds rose on Friday for the first time in four days, lowering yields on the notes due May 2033 by 10 basis points to 8.73% after his announcement late the previous evening. The nation’s dollar bonds due March 2048 also advanced.

Niger missed debt payments of $24.2 million on its domestic bonds in the past week as sanctions after a 2023 coup blocked its access to the regional capital market, Bloomberg News reported. The government missed a 13.4 billion CFA franc ($22 million) principal payment on a one-year bond that matured Feb. 16, the regional market for government securities, UMOA-Titres said in a statement. The West African nation also missed interest payments of 1.07 billion franc and 284 million franc on two seven-year notes due 2027 and 2030 respectively, it said.

Kenya’s government said it will repurchase the bulk of its outstanding June 2024 dollar bonds, a move to shore up market confidence amid concerns about repaying the $2 billion principal, Bloomberg News reported. The East African nation plans to buy back as much as $1.44 billion of notes, according to a Thursday press release. That’s up from an initial amount of $1.4 billion it had set. Kenya sold $1.5 billion of new eurobonds this week for the rollover, aided by the falling cost to issue debt.

Zambia's central bank raised its benchmark lending rate for the fifth meeting in a row, it said on Wednesday, citing a further deterioration in the inflation outlook, Reuters reported. The bank raised its policy rate by 150 basis points to 12.5%. Inflation in the southern African country rose to 13.2% year-on-year in January from 13.1% in December, moving further away from the bank's 6%-8% target band. Inflation is expected to average 12.5% this year, Bank of Zambia Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters.

Like a lot of explosive financial scandals, the story of Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill could fairly be described as a simple proposition that spun completely out of control, the New York Times reported. Quinn was an Irish oil-and-gas man with warm eyes and a mustache; Cahill was his longtime partner, an accountant by training. The two had been working in Nigeria since the 1970s, doing small-time deals in the energy and defense sectors, like fixing tanks and siting oil wells. But in the mid-2000s, they spied a bigger opportunity.

Nigeria's central bank aims for inflation to fall to about 21% and will work to strengthen the country's undervalued naira currency, Governor Olayemi Cardoso said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Cardoso faces pressure to raise interest rates when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) holds a rate-setting meeting next month for the first time since he took office in September. Inflation in December hit 28.92%, its highest level in more than 27 years.