Africa Business News

Access Bank Plc on Monday announced the completion of the acquisition of Transnational Bank (Kenya) Plc.
The bank, in a notice to the investing public and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, noted that the acquisition followed the receipt of full regulatory approvals and fulfillment of all condition’s precedent to completion.
The bank’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Herbert Wigwe, while commenting on the acquisition expressed excitement at the successful entry into the vibrant Kenyan market.
The discussion, according to a notice obtained from the NSE is regarding a potential transaction between Access Bank Zambia and Cavmont Bank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cavmont Capital.
The notice explained that the potential transaction was related to the sale of 100 per cent of Cavmont Capital’s interest in Cavmont Bank to Access Bank Zambia.
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The Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele, on Monday said About 20 projects valued at N26.28bn have been funded under the N100bn Central Bank of Nigeria credit support intervention for the healthcare industry.
The CBN also said it had received over 27 proposals from researchers requesting for N67bn grant.
Emefiele said this in Abuja during the inauguration of the Board of Experts of the Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme.
He said currently, 20 projects valued at N26.28bn have been funded under the N100bn credit support intervention for the healthcare industry.
He said some of the firms that have been able to obtain funding include hospitals, research centres and pharmaceutical industries.
The CBN Director (Development Finance), Philip Yusuf, said that the apex bank had received over 27 proposals from researchers requesting for N67bn grants.
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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has increased the prices at which two of the country’s major crude oil grades would be sold in August.
According to Reuters, most of the country’s September loading programmes emerged on Monday, but traders were still waiting for Angolan allocations.
The NNPC on Monday raised its August official selling prices for Bonny Light and Qua Iboe crude oil to dated Brent plus 61 cents and plus 65 cents per barrel respectively.
The loading programmes for Bonny Light and Forcados will both have seven cargoes, Bonga will have four and Qua Iboe six.
Total loadings for the four key grades will be at 756,000 bpd in September up slightly from 743,000 in August.
Bonny Light and Qua Iboe were being offered at about dated Brent plus 90 cents to plus $1.00.
The international oil price benchmark, Brent crude, rose by $0.14 to $43.28 per barrel as of 8pm on Monday.
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The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday retained the country’s benchmark interest rate or Monetary Policy Rate at 12.5 per cent.
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said the retention of the MPR at 12.5 per cent was the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee at its Monday.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the business community was more worried by the silence of the apex bank on the uncertainty in the foreign exchange market.
Emefiele said the committee also noted that increasing MPR at the current stage of the economy would be counter-intuitive and would result in upward pressure on market rates and cost of production.
The CBN boss observed that further cut in MPR might not necessarily lead to a corresponding decrease in market interest rate, considering the current economic challenges.
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Fitch Ratings said the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price shock have caused a severe impact on credit rating in Nigeria and some other sub-Saharan African countries.
It stated this in its report on Monday titled Outlook on Sub-Saharan sovereigns is negative.
The report said Fitch forecasts the median real gross domestic product for rated SSA sovereigns will contract by 2.1 per cent in 2020, before returning to growth at four per cent in 2021, which is barely above trend growth.
Fitch said countries with a concentration on tourism, particularly Cabo Verde and the Seychelles, had also been badly affected.
It noted that the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price shock it triggered had had a severe impact on sovereigns in sub-Saharan Africa, which led to rating downgrades on seven of the 19 rated SSA sovereigns since the beginning of March 2020.
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China's Commerce Ministry on Thursday said China will take necessary measures in responses to Britain's "discriminatory" ban on Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which has severely damaged China's investment confidence in the country.
Ministry spokesman Gao Feng during a weekly briefing said China is evaluating the UK actions that have betrayed free trade principles and will take necessary measures to resolutely defend Chinese firms' legal rights.
China's foreign ministry said Britain has lost its independence on the matter of Huawei adding that the British government should make responsible decisions in line with its long-term interests.
Gao urged Britain to correct its wrong behaviour and protect its good trade ties with China.
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Europe's top court on Thursday rejected a key EU tool used to transfer Europeans' personal data across the Atlantic for commercial use but upheld the validity of another tool used by hundreds of thousands of companies to transfer data worldwide.
The court said the Court of Justice invalidates Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield.
It said it however considers that Commission Decision 2010/87 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is valid.
The rulings came in a clash between Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems.
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Google has become the latest US technology giant to invest in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries' digital business.
The Alphabet-owned search engine has agreed to pay $4.5bn (£3.6bn) for a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms.
Reliance's billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani says the two companies will develop phones for 4G and 5G networks.
Google joins a list of new investors in Jio that includes Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm.
Mr. Ambani in a statement to shareholders said Google has empowered millions of Indians to access helpful information and, like Jio, is a force for change and innovation.
Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai said the pace and scale of digital transformation in India is hugely inspiring for them and reinforces their view that building products for India first helps them build better products for users everywhere.
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China's economy grew 3.2% in the second quarter following a record slump.
The world's second biggest economy saw a sharp decline in the first three months of the year during coronavirus lockdowns.
Figures however released on Wednesday show China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) returned to growth during April to June.
The numbers are being closely watched around the world as China restarts its economy.
The figure is higher than experts were predicting and points towards a V-shaped recovery which is a sharp fall followed by a quick recovery.
It also means China avoids going into a technical recession - signified as two consecutive periods of negative growth.
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Official figures indicate that the number of workers on UK payrolls has fallen by 649,000 between March and June.
The total was not as big as many feared, because large numbers of firms have put employees on the government-backed furlough scheme.
Economists say the full effect on employment will not be felt until the scheme ends in October.
Analysts say the number of hours worked per week is currently a truer reflection of the impact of the coronavirus crisis because of the effect of the furlough scheme on the employment market.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that since the start of the pandemic, total weekly hours worked in the UK had fallen by a record 175.3 million, or 16.7%, to 877.1 million hours.
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