Nigeria’s central bank has extended the timeline to swap out its old currency for redesigned notes after the change triggered a cash shortage, forcing businesses to close and leaving millions unable to withdraw their money, the Associated Press reported. The Central Bank of Nigeria announced on Monday that the old notes of 200 naira (43 U.S. cents), 500 naira ($1.08) and 1,000 naira ($2.16) will remain legal tender until Dec. 31.

Ghana’s embattled cedi has rebounded 5% against the dollar in March as the government’s decision to suspend external debt payments eased demand for greenbacks in the local foreign exchange market, Bloomberg News reported. The west African nation unilaterally stopped payments on eurobonds and other external debt in December, pending an agreement with creditors that is needed to unlock an International Monetary Fund bailout. Traders said the impact is beginning to filter through to the currency, after it lost ground in the first two months of the year.

A panel of investors and banks has ruled Ghana’s missed coupon payments on its foreign denominated bonds counts as a failure-to-pay event, paving the way for a payout of the default-insurance contracts tied to the country’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. The Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee (CDDC) made the decision at a meeting held on Monday, according to a notice on the panel’s website on Friday. Ghana skipped payment of interests on Jan. 18 of a $1 billion eurobond maturing in 2026.

Nigeria’s top court ordered the central bank to halt its removal of old high-denomination banknotes from circulation, a move that’s created an acute cash shortage in Africa’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. The Supreme Court decided Friday that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s plan to discontinue the use of old bills by Feb. 10 was unconstitutional. The judges ruled that the notes should remain in circulation until the end of the year, Nasir El-Rufai, one of the state governors that brought the suit, told reporters afterwards.

Ghana’s eurobonds sank to the lowest level in nearly three months after the country missed a self-imposed deadline to restructure its bilateral debt and S&P Global Ratings warned that bondholders face larger losses than anticipated, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta wanted to reach a restructuring agreement with bilateral creditors by the end of February to help qualify for a $3 billion International Monetary Fund program. So far, Ghana has only partially completed the domestic-debt part of the exchange plan.

South Africa and Nigeria have been placed on a global financial watchdog’s so-called gray list denoting nations with shortcomings in tackling illicit financial flows, a move that scars their international reputations and may raise costs for banks and asset managers, Bloomberg News reported. The decisions were announced by the Financial Action Task Force on Friday. While South Africa’s inclusion on the list was widely flagged as a risk, the possible addition of Nigeria attracted little attention. Morocco and Cambodia were taken off the list after improving their controls.

South Africa is offering a total of 13 billion rand ($710 million) in tax incentives to businesses and individuals to encourage investment in renewable energy projects and offset the impact of higher fuel and food prices, Bloomberg News reported. Africa’s most industrialized economy is experiencing its worst bout of power rationing yet, with outages occurring for more than 200 days in 2022 and every day this year, because the state power utility can’t meet demand from its old and poorly maintained plants.

A shuttered South African airline sued Boeing Co. for fraud over its agreement to buy eight 737 MAX planes and seeks damages of at least $83 million, Reuters reported. Boeing "placed profits over safety and led with a plan of deception," Comair's suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle said. Boeing declined to comment. Comair said that Boeing committed fraud over its failure to disclose problems with a key flight control system tied to two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people and led to the MAX's 20-month grounding.

Ghana plans to convert an estimated 40 billion cedis ($3.3 billion) of loans owed to its central bank into bonds, making it the single biggest holder of domestic government securities and exposing it to an ongoing debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. The bonds, due to be issued by the finance ministry, will also cover interest owed to the Bank of Ghana, said the people, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Zimbabwe's central bank has cut its policy rate by 50 percentage points to 150%, it said in a statement on Thursday, driven by a downward trend in inflation since late last year, Reuters reported. Monthly inflation fell to 1.1% in January from 2.4% in December, while yearly inflation dipped to 229.8% from 243.8%. "The moderation in interest rates is important and necessitated by the downward trend in the month-on-month inflation since the last quarter of 2022," said the bank, adding it expects the trend to continue into 2023.