Anglophone West Africa
Nigeria

• Earlier this week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), coined, e-Naira, with two associated applications – e-Naira speed wallet and e-Naira merchant wallet launched on Google Playstore and Apple Store. Furthermore, according to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, N500m worth of the digital currency was minted by the apex bank with N200.0m worth issued to banks, with free transactions on the platform for the first 90 days of launch.
• The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, in a statement at a news conference held earlier this week in Abuja, disclosed China’s interest in further boosting the trade and commerce relation with Nigeria. 
• The Ambassador also disclosed that plans are already in motion between the Central Bank of Nigeria and China directed towards establishing Chinese financial institutions in Nigeria and vice versa.
• Earlier in the week, the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, condemned the Federal Government’s (FG) sustained spending on petrol subsidy which is expected to hit N2.9tn by the end of the year. 
• Furthermore, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, during the 15^th OTL Africa Downstream Week 2021 held in Lagos asserted that Nigeria’s demand for petroleum products is expected to grow from 15.1MMT in 2020 to 17.3MMT in 2025
• The Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund donated N300m for the support of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency’s COVID-19 vaccination program in Nigeria, in the bid to ameliorate vaccine equity and boost COVID-19 vaccine access for Vulnerable Nigerians.

Ghana

• The Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, revealed that the massive ongoing maritime project initiate by the Federal Government of Ghana has the capacity to push to becoming the preferred maritime trade destination in West-Africa.
• The Director for Infrastructure & Urban Development in the African development Bank, Amadou Oumarou, disclosed in a statement that a $75m commercial loan was officially approved to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), to promote infrastructure financing gap in Africa.

Francophone West Africa (WAEMU)
Senegal

• The National Agency of Statistics and Demography of Senegal revealed that Senegal’s GDP rose 4.1% q/q in Q2-2021 vs the revised 1% expansion in Q1-2021.
• BioNTech, a German biotechnology company in an announcement revealed Senegal as the second host of its first COVID-19 Vaccine plant project in Africa, following Rwanda.

Ivory Coast

• Radio France Internationale reported how that France granted Ivory Coast debt relief of €1.4bn, as part of the debt reduction development mechanism to allow West African nations to transform bilateral debt into development aid.

East Africa
Kenya

• According to an article by Bloomberg, The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, asserted without stating the source of his data that Africa’s Gross Domestic Product could contract by as much as 30% by 2050 if action to adapt to climate change is not taken as a priority.
• Bloomberg disclosed in an article Kenya’s plan to retire or convert heavy fuel oil-fired power plants to its plans to switch to liquefied natural gas as its major power source by 2030, to facilitate its pursuit for a cleaner energy path to a 100% climate-friendly grid.

Tanzania

• Tanzanian Gold Corporation has disclosed Buckreef Gold Company Limited’s procurement and construction plan for a 1,000+ tonnes per day processing plant expansion.
• The Federal Government of Tanzania increased its stake in Shelter Afrique (a pan-African housing financier owned by 44 member states) to 1.72%.

Uganda

• According to a statement from the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Uganda was among the African countries to benefit from its $100m funding, directed toward boosting cold storage and distribution of food, pharmaceuticals in the region.
• The Federal Government of Uganda through the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority in a statement imposed a $30 mandatory COVID test fee to all air travellers.

Ethiopia

• The United States International Development Finance Corp. has reportedly delayed the disbursement of the $500mn for Safaricom-led consortium’s operations in Ethiopia, due to the unresolved extreme conflict between the Tigray region and Ethiopia.
• According to the Deputy Director-General of Ethiopia Coffee and Tea Development Authority, Shafi Omar, Ethiopia expects to earn a whopping $165mn from its coffee exports in Q2-2021.

Southern Africa
South Africa

• According to Statistics South Africa, Producer prices rose by 7.8% y/y vs 7.2% recorded in August. 
• Producer prices rose 0.9% m.m vs 0.9% in August. 
• South Africa’s troubled electricity state energy utility company, Eskom, has announced South African’s face an increased risk of power outages due to maintenance needs to be carried out at deteriorating coal-fired power stations. 
• According to the Governor of the Central bank, Lesetja Kganyago, South Africa will raise its benchmark interest rate if accelerating inflation remains persistent. 

 
Zambia 

• According to the Zambia Statistics Agency, the Zambia trade surplus widened to ZK4.8bn in September from ZK3.9bn in August. 
• According to the Zambia Statistics agency, Zambia’s consumer prices rose 21.1% y/y in October vs 22.1% in September. On an m/m basis, prices rose by 0.4% m/m. 
• Food inflation rose by 28.1% y/y s 29.6% in September. 
• THE Finnish Government has set aside €9 million to build the capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia’s mining industry. 

• Union54, the first Zambian startup backed by Y Combinator, has gotten another major venture capital firm on its term sheet, Tiger Global.  The company confirmed its just-completed $3 million seed round.

Angola

• According to data published by the Luanda-based Bank of Angola, Net reserves fall from $9.89b in August, whilst Gross reserves fell to $16.39b from $16.72b in August.
• According to Bloomberg, Angola plans to increase oil exports to1.14m b/d in December. 

Zimbabwe 

• Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum miner, Zimplats has signed a $1.8bn investment agreement with the Zimbabwe government to expand mining operations, including the construction of a base metal refinery. 
• According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, Zimbabwe’s consumer prices rose by 54.5% y/y in October. On a m/m basis, consumer prices rose 6.3% m/m. 
• Food prices rose by 7.6% in October compared with 4.82% in September. 
• Data released by Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FRPR) shows that Gold Output surged by 29% during the nine months ended September 30. 2021. 
• The report showed that gold output rose to 18.9 tonnes during the review period from 14.65 tonnes in the corresponding period in 2020. 

Central Africa (CEMAC & Congo DRC)
Cameroon 

• The Water Utilities Corporation (Camwater) informed that it had already connected 5000 households to the water distribution network in the framework of the project. This represents 83.3% of the 6,000 households target two years after the launch of the project. 
• Cameroonian financier Louis Banga-Ntolo has been confirmed CEO of the Central African Stock Exchange (BVMAC). 
• According to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), in 2020, 30.1 million mobile money accounts were active in the CEMAC zone, according to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
• Cameroon accounted for 64.8% (19.5 million) of the overall accounts active during the period, thus the leader in that market. Cameroon accounts for almost three times the number of mobile money accounts held by the Congolese (7.1 million) and almost ten times the number of accounts held by the Gabonese (2.7 million). 

DRC Congo

• According to the IMF, a faster-than-expected rise in mining production is set to boost the Democratic Republic of Congo’s economic growth rate to about 5.4% this year and 6.2% in 2022.