Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the following conferences with whose organisers EmergingMarkets.me has media partnership agreements have been postponed: The Digital Banking Summit organised by ICSA has been rescheduled for August 17-18 and will take place in Accra, Ghana. It was originally planned to be held on April 6-7 in Lagos. Blockchain Life, initially scheduled… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Africa
Standard Chartered: profits up 8 per cent year-on-year but headwinds to affect 2020 performance
By Andrei Skvarsky. Banking group Standard Chartered has reported an underlying profit increase of 8 per cent for 2019 but predicted possible worse performance than expected for this year because of macroeconomic factors and the coronavirus outbreak. Standard Chartered’s earnings per share grew by 23 per cent in 2019, the London-headquartered lender, which is present… Continue Reading
African Development Bank parting company with senior vice-president Charles Boamah
By Andrei Skvarsky. Charles Boamah is stepping down as senior vice-president of the African Development Bank, according to a statement from the lender. Boamah has spent 23 years at the development bank, having held the positions of director of accounting, controller and chief financial officer (combining the latter post with that of vice-president), before being… Continue Reading
Paxful bitcoin exchange: 2020 to be ‘landmark year’ for African crypto industry
By Andrei Skvarsky. Peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Paxful reiterated this month that its African business is booming and was still upbeat about the use of cryptocurrencies in Africa in general, arguing that 2020 will be a “landmark year for the African crypto and blockchain industry”. In tune with a statement it issued in autumn 2019, Paxful… Continue Reading
Angola to privatise oil firm stake, advertise other foreign investment opportunities
By Andrei Skvarsky. Angola has decided to partially privatise its state oil and gas company Sonangol as part of a campaign to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) that includes plans for a global roadshow and a large-scale conference at home. Up to 30 per cent of Sonangol is planned to be sold off by 2022,… Continue Reading
Francois Du Toit rejoins RenCap as insurance, real estate analyst in Africa team
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has re-hired its ex-analyst Francois Du Toit, appointing him as an insurance and real estate analyst in its Africa team. Du Toit will be based in Cape Town and cover insurance stocks across RenCap’s African markets and real estate stocks in South Africa, the bank, which focuses… Continue Reading
CORRECTION- Renaissance Capital makes senior hire for Nigeria investment banking team
(Correcting the job description of the newcomer, who is not head of the investment banking service). By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Oladipupo Adekanmbi, previously an adviser at Nigeria’s FBNQuest Merchant Bank, as vice-president, investment banking, Nigeria. A statement from RenCap, a bank focusing on emerging and frontier markets across the… Continue Reading
Germany pledges 20m-euro soft loan to Namibia to support SMEs, rural families
By Andrei Skvarsky. The German government has pledged a concessional loan of 325m Namibian dollars (20m euros) to Namibia under a November 15 agreement to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and rural and remotely-located households in the African country. The money would be provided by German state-owned development bank KfW to Namibian national postal… Continue Reading
Telco forum to mull buyouts in Africa as ways to boost profits
By Andrei Skvarsky. Numerous telecommunications companies are getting together for an Africa-focused conference late this month to discuss the future of buyouts in Africa’s financial technology sector and other industries in the continent as potential ways of making higher profits. TMT Finance Africa 2019, to be held in London on November 28, is expected to… Continue Reading
AfDB, S. Korean govt paying for search for ways to diversify Angola exports
By Andrei Skvarsky. The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the South Korean government are funding a study aimed at finding ways to improve the business environment in Angola and diversify its exports. The money for the research, commissioned by the Angolan government, comes via the KOAFEC Trust Fund, a bilateral facility set up by the… Continue Reading
Nedbank co-sponsoring event to boost women’s role in African economies
By Andrei Skvarsky. Nedbank, one of South Africa’s biggest lenders, is co-sponsoring a planned high-profile conference late this month that aims to promote the role of women in African economies. The theme of the conference, to be held in Cape Town on October 29-30, is “Enhancing Impact: Digitalisation, Investment and Intra-African Trade”, according to the… Continue Reading
Paxful bitcoin bourse upbeat about use of cryptos in Africa
By Andrei Skvarsky. According to bitcoin exchange Paxful, African businesses use cryptocurrencies on a rapidly increasing scale and many Africans see them as an opportunity to start a business. Africa is the “fastest-growing customer base” of the Delaware-based exchange company, Paxful said in a statement, putting its global number of users at nearly three million.… Continue Reading
VC4A names 12 African startups to pitch to investors at Cape Town forum
By Andrei Skvarsky. Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), a Netherlands-based startup promotion platform, has named 12 African startups that have been selected to pitch their business at an investors’ conference in Cape Town in November. The 12 companies, four of which are Egyptian, three Nigerian, four South African, and one Algerian, will showcase their projects… Continue Reading
CORRECTION: African Development Bank hosts investment promo event for North Africa
(Correcting ‘nearly half a decade’ to ‘nearly half a century’ in bottom para) By Andrei Skvarsky. The African Development Bank (AfDB) last week hosted a seminar in Tunis to advertise private investment opportunities in North Africa. The two-day event brought together nearly 200 participants from 23 countries who represented civil engineering, public works and other… Continue Reading
UPDATE – Top African bankers to speak at Accra’s Digital Banking Summit
Some two dozen speakers, about half of them top figures in African banks, are going to take the floor at the Digital Banking Summit in Accra on August 19-20. Continue Reading
RenCap rehires Alexander Vengranovich to oversee telecoms research
By Andrei Skvarsky. Alexander Vengranovich, who was a real estate analyst at Renaissance Capital in 2007-2008, has returned to the Moscow-based investment bank, this time as global head of telecoms research. Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap makes key hire for MENA team
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Omar Gaafar, a former senior manager at Egyptian investment company Beltone Financial, as vice-president of the Moscow-based firm’s investment banking service for the Middle East and North Africa. Continue Reading
Senior African bankers to meet over world banking digitisation
Senior African bankers are getting together for a conference in Accra this August to discuss the digitisation of banking across the world and issues it involves. Continue Reading
RenCap-hosted forum involves 150 meetings between Egypt companies and potential investors
By Andrei Skvarsky. Egyptian companies had about 150 meetings with foreign institutional investors owning assets totalling about $20bn during a recent conference organised by Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital. Continue Reading
RenCap to host forum to drum up money inflow into Egypt
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital is going to host a conference in Cape Town on April 9-10 to attract international, primarily South African, investment to Egypt, a country RenCap credits with highly successful economic reforms. Continue Reading
Legacy issues main hurdle to global hi-tech insurance innovation – survey
By Andrei Skvarsky. Unresolved issues originating in outdated business organisation systems are the main hurdle faced by insurance companies worldwide in trying to put their business on a high-tech basis, a survey suggests. Continue Reading
Impact investing is often more profitable than traditional investing – survey
By Andrei Skvarsky. Impact investing, besides social and environmental benefits, its raison d’etre, quite often involves business advantages over conventional investing, a survey suggests. Continue Reading
RenCap rehires Molchanov to run Russia & CIS investment banking, hires Zitha as S. Africa chairman
By Andrei Skvarsky. Petr Molchanov is rejoining Renaissance Capital after leaving the Moscow-headquartered investment bank several months ago and has been appointed as head of investment banking for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Continue Reading
RenCap reports senior staff moves in Cairo, London, Moscow
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital has reported senior appointments in its Cairo, London and Moscow teams. Continue Reading
Five businessmen selected for Senegal seed accelerator course
By Andrei Skvarsky. Five young entrepreneurs have been selected for a six-month seed accelerator programme in Senegal due to pioneering farming practices proposed by them. Continue Reading
NGO says has launched new cryptocurrency, afro, to boost growth in Africa
By Andrei Skvarsky. A Geneva-based nongovernmental organisation has announced it has launched a cryptocurrency, called the afro, that is purportedly designed to promote economic growth and financial inclusion in Africa. Continue Reading
US crypto bourse Paxful tells Kenyans bitcoin trade can make them richer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Bitcoin trading is one way to narrow down the big gulf between the rich and poor in Kenya, according to Paxful, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange startup that is working to include the East African country in its geography. Continue Reading
GUEST POST: Emerging markets in South Africa
By staff at IQ Option Magazine. The South African market is one of the major emerging markets in the African region with only two more participants – Morocco and Egypt. Drained by the apartheid policies in the mid-20th century, the government managed to restore trade relations under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. However, this was not … Continue Reading
GUEST POST: Best ETFs for emerging markets
By staff at Forex Trading in South Africa. Being a marketable security, an Exchange-Traded Fund or ETF tracks a commodity, a stock index, bonds as well as assets. The price of an ETF’s shares is more likely to change as they are bought or sold throughout the day. The ETFs have underlying assets like oil … Continue Reading