East Africa dominates 2018 African Banker Awards
Businessam Staff
May 22, 2018
Winners of the 2018 African Banker Awards have been announced with East African banks stealing the show. This is despite several Nigerian banks making the shortlist at the prestigious award held in Busan, South Korea. The Awards, held annually on the fringes of the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank, celebrate excellence in banking […]
Egypt to hold international bid rounds for oil, gas exploration
Businessam StaffMay 22, 2018
Egypt will launch two international bid rounds for oil and gas exploration in 2018, the petroleum ministry said in a statement on Monday. One bid round will cover 16 concession areas, mostly in the Mediterranean Sea, under state buyer EGAS, in its largest ever bid round. The other auction will cover 11 concession areas under […]
AfDB approves $20m loan to boost lending to SMEs in Liberia
Businessam StaffMay 17, 2018
The African Development Bank has approved US$ 20 million loan facility to boost lending to small and medium-sized enterprises in Liberia. The loan, approved by the Board of Directors of the Bank, is a trade finance package for three Liberian commercial banks: Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI); International Bank of (Liberia) Limited (IBL) and […]
Equity blockchain fund targets 700 million unbanked African farmers
Temitayo AyetotoMay 16, 2018
Swarm, a private equity (PE) blockchain fund is aiming to provide financial opportunities to the estimated 700 million unbanked African farmers through the FarmCoin pan-African financial and commodities ecosystem, Philipp Pieper, the CEO and Co-Founder has said. The introduction of FarmCoin to its investment marketplace, he said, would lure investors into the major unbanked global […]
Banks in Africa need leverage technology to adapt to regulatory changes, risk management, says SAS
Businessam StaffMay 15, 2018
As one of the most regulated industries in the world, banks are under pressure to not only comply with constantly changing regulations but also to modernise their systems, so that they can reduce compliance costs, improve efficiency and effectiveness in risk management processes, stay competitive in the age of the FinTech, and be innovative on […]
South Africa’s march manufacturing output down 1.3% y-o-y
Businessam StaffMay 10, 2018
South Africa’s manufacturing output contracted by 1.3 percent year-on-year in March following a revised 0.5 percent expansion in February, the statistics agency said on Thursday. Statistics South Africa said factory production on a month-on-month basis increased 1.3 percent in March but shrunk by 1.7 percent in the three months to March versus the previous three […]
Rwanda’s Kagame pushes for single digital market in Africa to facilitate economic integration
Businessam StaffMay 8, 2018
Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda has advocated for the advancement of an African single digital market which he said ought to be viewed as a facilitator of economic integration. The president said this Monday while speaking at a side event, the Transform Africa Economic Forum, of the Transform Africa Summit 2018, which came out of […]
Africa’s youths key to strengthening continent’s economy, says UN official
Businessam StaffApril 30, 2018
Abdalla Hamdok, the deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa said Saturday that the ambition of Africa’s young people is “the greatest resource” and “the best hope” for strengthening the continent’s economic prosperity. Hamdok made the statement in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the annual Ibrahim Governance Weekend. […]
AfDB organizes workshop on strengthening legislation to curb illicit financial flows from Africa
Businessam StaffApril 22, 2018
The African development bank will hold a Workshop on Strengthening the Role of Parliament in Combating Illicit Financial Flows from Africa (IFFs) from April 24 to 26 April 2018 in Abuja. Since the approval of the Bank Group’s Policy on the prevention of illicit financial flows and its accompanying Strategic Framework and Action Plan in […]
South Africa’s inflation rate falls to seven-year low in March
Businessam StaffApril 18, 2018
South Africa’s inflation rate fell to a seven-year low in March, making a stronger case for the central bank to consider an interest-rate cut. Inflation slowed to 3.8 percent from a year earlier, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Wednesday in a report on its website. Price growth has remained within the central bank’s target range […]