Africa Business News

The South African government on Monday said it planned to oppose an application by regional airline SA Airlink to put South African Airways (SAA) into provisional liquidation and prevent a meeting of SAA’s creditors to discuss a restructuring plan.
State-owned SAA went into a form of bankruptcy protection in December and since then state-appointed administrators have been trying to see what they can salvage.
SAA has failed to turn a profit since 2011 after expansion into competitive, loss-making global routes. Its problems were exacerbated when the airline had to suspend commercial passenger flights in March due to COVID-19 crisis.
SAA’s creditors were due to meet on Thursday this week to consider a proposed business rescue plan for the airline.
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South African telecoms provider Telkom suspended dividends for three years on Monday after a 66% slump in full-year earnings it attributed to the coronavirus crisis.
The steep earnings drop was also a result of a 1.2 billion rand ($69.1 million) one-off cost relating to voluntary severance and early retirement packages for 2,200 workers who left in March as part of a restructuring plan.
Telkom, which is partly state-owned, declared a dividend of 50.1 cents per share but said it will suspend its dividend for the next three years and redirect the capital towards buying more airwave spectrum and its capital expenditure programme.
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A banking consultant, Nana Otuo Acheampong has said the financial sector cleanup carried out by the Bank of Ghana, is responsible for the resilience of banks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new report by the Bank of Ghana has established that even though banks have been resilient to shocks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the same cannot be said for Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions such as Savings and Loans Companies and Microfinance firms.
Nana Otuo Acheampong told Citi Business News the capital base of the 23 banks in the country have become stronger than all 317 Specialized Deposit-taking Institutions (SDIs) put together.
He said this can be credited to the financial sector clean-up which saw the revocation of licenses of nine commercial banks aside from the twenty-three insolvent savings and loans companies and finance houses, and the 347 microfinance firms that were also declared insolvent.
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Power distribution companies on Sunday blamed the high import duty on meters imposed by the Federal Government for the low metering of power users across the country.
According to the Discos, the high import duty on meters was among the hurdles slowing their metering target under the Meter Asset Providers regulation.
They disclosed this in a statement issued by their umbrella body, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, in Abuja.
The Discos urged the Federal Government to intervene by reducing the cost of duty on imported meters as this would enable faster metering of power users and end the estimated billing regime.
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Nigeria has been losing about 44,000 barrels of crude oil daily since Saturday following the shutdown of the Odidi and Batan oil flow stations by protesting youths in some Delta oil-producing communities.
Aggrieved youths from Odidi/Kantu and Diebiri-Batan communities in Warri South West Local Government Areas are protesting against alleged nonpayment of bills owed the host communities by the major oil-producing companies.
The protesting youths had vowed that the station would remain shut until the operator, Neconde Energy Limited, had cleared all bills owed the host communities.
The spokesperson for the Diebiri Batan community, Mr Peter Dio, insisted that the Batan flow station would remain shut until the alleged debts owed the community were cleared.
He accused Neconde Energy Limited of reneging on its agreements with the community.
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The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria has said that currency speculators will lose huge funds as the Central Bank of Nigeria plans to resume dollar sales to over 5,000 Bureau De Change operators across major cities nationwide.
A report by ABCON stated that the naira was facing its greatest risk from the coronavirus pandemic as currency speculators continued to make spurious demand for dollar with hope to make good returns from the rising gaps between official and parallel market rates.
It noted that the CBN and ABCON had estimated losses of over N10bn for speculators in the next few months as the CBN prepared to commence forex sales to the BDCs.
The report said that it is especially true now that the local currency has come under intense pressure that is purely driven by speculative demand for the dollar.
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Nigeria may face petrol scarcity as oil workers threatens to withdraw their services nationwide should the Federal Government insist on registering employees in the oil sector on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers made the threat in a letter addressed to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
The unions kicked against plans by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to register oil workers on the IPPIS platform.
The unions said their apprehension about the IPPIS platform stemmed from the fact that it discountenanced the peculiarities of the oil and gas sector with regards to collective bargaining agreement and approved pay structure between the unions and the Federal Government.
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Brent crude jumped more than 2.5% to above $42.5 on Friday, its highest level since March 6th and heading for an over 9% gain in the latest week. Prices were boosted after Iraq and Kazakhstan committed to compensating oil overproduction in May at the latest OPEC+ meeting and have been rising as output was cut by around 10% of the global supply since May 1 while demand from European countries shows signs of recovery as economies lift lockdowns restrictions. On Thursday, oil for immediate delivery costs more than supply later for the first time since March, indicating tightening supply and encouraging storage to be drawn down.
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The UK's debt is now worth more than its economy after the government borrowed a record amount in May.
The £55.2bn figure was nine times higher than in May last year and the highest since records began in 1993.
The borrowing splurge sent government debt surging to £1.95 trillion, exceeding the size of the economy for the first time in more than 50 years.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the figures confirmed the severe impact the virus was having on public finances.
He said the best way to restore our public finances to a more sustainable footing is to safely reopen our economy so people can return to work.
He added that they have set out plans to do this in a gradual and safe fashion, including reopening high streets across the country this week, as they kickstart our economic recovery.
Income from tax, National Insurance and VAT all dived in May amid the coronavirus lockdown as spending on support measures soared.
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Colgate-Palmolive is reviewing Chinese toothpaste brand Darlie as firms reassess race stereotypes in products.
The popular Chinese brand features a caricature of a man with blackface make-up and the name translates as "black person toothpaste".
It is owned by Colgate and its joint venture partner Hawley & Hazel and sold widely across Asia.
A string of high-profile brands are also reviewing names and logos in light of the racism debate in the US.
The toothpaste brand was originally called Darkie before it was changed to Darlie in 1989, following pressure from shareholders and other groups. But the blackface logo remained.
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