May 10, 2024/United Capital Research

Anglophone West Africa 
Nigeria

• CBN asks banks to charge 0.5% cybersecurity levy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered banks operating in the country to start charging a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions. This was announced in a circular from the Apex Bank and the implementation of the levy would commence in two weeks (20th May 2024). The circular was directed at all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, other financial institutions, mobile money operators and payment service providers. According to the CBN The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration. ‘Cybersecurity Levy’.
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• Currency in circulation rises to N3.87tn – CBN

According to the latest money and credit statistics on the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the currency in circulation was N3.87tn in March, higher than N3.69tn in February and N3.65tn in January. However, currency outside banks have also increased progressively during the first quarter, growing from N3.28tn in January to N3.41tn and N3.63tn in February and March, respectively. The data revealed that over 90.0% of currency in circulation is held outside of the banking system, indicating Nigerians are holding more cash.
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• CBN directs banks to suspend charges on deposits till September

The CBN has instructed banks to stop charges on cash deposits until September 30, 2024. This directive was communicated through a circular signed by Adetona Adedeji, the Director of Banking Supervision at the apex bank. Previously, individuals were to be charged 2.0% on deposits exceeding N500,000, while corporate account holders faced a 2.0% charge on deposits surpassing N3.0 million.
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• States, LGs to get 90% VAT revenue – Tinubu panel

The Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms has proposed reviewing states and local governments’ share of the Value Added Tax revenue to 90.0% and reducing the Federal Government’s share from 15.0% to 10.0%. The panel also recommended an upward review of the current 7.5% rates charged to customers. This was disclosed by the Chairman of the committee, Taiwo Oyedele, at a stakeholder’s exposure and impact assessment session organised to discuss some of the major proposals in the National Tax Policy in Abuja.
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• Forex crisis: Three states demand $501m loan repayment suspension

The state governments of Ekiti, Cross River, and Ogun have proposed a suspension of their foreign debt repayments worth $501m due to severe foreign exchange volatility. According to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), the three states obtained multilateral and bilateral loans placing them among the top 10 states with the highest foreign debt stock as of December 2023. Cross Rivers has the highest with $211.13mn, followed by Ogun with $168.8mn and Ekiti with $121.1mn.
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Ghana

• Ghana Stock Exchange reaches record GH¢80billion market capitalization

In April 2024, the market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) surged to an unprecedented GH¢80.20 billion, marking a significant milestone. This remarkable increase was driven by substantial gains in the share prices of various companies, underscoring the positive market sentiment and bolstered investor confidence.
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• We’ve not introduced 1% cybersecurity levy – BoG

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has denied reports of introducing a one percent cybersecurity levy on all banking transactions. These allegations surfaced on social media following reports that the Central Bank was planning to impose a one percent cybersecurity levy on all banking transactions due to increasing cybersecurity threats both locally and internationally.
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Francophone West Africa (WAEMU)
Senegal

• Internet Subscriptions in Senegal Jump by 15.2% in 2023

Internet adoption in Senegal is closely tied to mobile telephony, particularly regarding mobile internet. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of active SIM cards in Senegal rose from 20.5 million to 22.4 million. Senegal’s telecoms authority (ARTP) reported 19.8 million internet subscriptions with mobile operators and internet service providers as of December 31, 2023. This marks a 15.2% growth from the 17.2 million recorded in 2022.
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• IMF Cuts Senegal 2024 Growth Rate on Gas Delay, Elections Impact

Senegal’s economy forecast to grow 7.1% this year compared with an earlier projection of 8.3%, International Monetary Fund says in a statement after a mission to the country. Economic activity in 1Q was weaker than anticipated, reflecting political uncertainties linked to the presidential election. Economic activity was subdued as businesses postponed investments and consumers cut back on spending. The growth outlook was reduced “due to the electoral context and delays in gas production to December 2024.
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Niger

• China’s First Oil Shipment From Niger Stymied by Border Dispute

China’s first shipment of crude from Niger has been blocked by a border dispute between the landlocked West African nation and its southern neighbor. Benin barred exports of the fuel from its port after junta-led Niger refused to open its land border for goods coming from the south.
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Mali

• Mali to Raise 2024 Security Spending by More Than $300m

Mali plans to increase security expenditure with 190b CFA francs ($311m), government says in an emailed statement after a cabinet meeting. Another 30b CFA francs will be allocated to operating subsidies for state power company Energie du Mali. Revised spending doesn’t affect the budgetary and financial balance of the initial budget.
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East Africa
Kenya

• Floods in Kenya Give Boost to Ruto’s Affordable Housing Push

Flooding in Kenya that’s killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands more is helping President William Ruto push one of his controversial campaign promises: Affordable housing. Ruto’s administration has imposed a 1.5% levy on workers to finance construction of 250,000 units of low-cost and social housing a year — an unpopular move that’s triggered a string of court challenges.
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• Strong shilling boosts investor confidence as Nairobi bourse picks in Q1

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was among the top African performers in the first quarter of 2024, buoyed by improved investor confidence that reduced outflows. From January to March, investor confidence improved notably due to the stabilisation of the domestic currency (Kenyan Shilling), according to the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
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• El Niño-Induced Floods Spawn Kenya Tree Planting Holiday

Kenya has declared Friday a holiday to plant trees in a bid to fight climate change that’s led to floods and torrential rains after years of drought. “Acknowledging that tree growing is the singular long-term solution to the climate crisis and its devastating effects on life and livelihoods,” May 10 has been designated a public holiday “for the purpose of countrywide tree growing activities,” Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki said in a gazette notice posted on X.
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• Kenya April Whole Economy PMI 50.1 vs 49.7 in March

The headline PMI registered fractionally above the 50.0 neutral mark at 50.1 in April, up from 49.7 in March. The latest reading was broadly in line with the trend for 2024 so far (50.2) and signalled a broad stabilisation in operating conditions.
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• Belt-tightening times as Ruto enacts Sh273bn budget cut

President William Ruto has made good his threat to slash ministries budget by hundreds of billions in the coming financial year, in an intended move to align expenditures with available resources.
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• April Inflation Drops To 5pc On Easing Food, Fuel And Electricity Prices

The latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the food and non-alcoholic beverage index, which represents 32.9 percent of inflation measurement, dropped by 0.1 percent between the period.
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Rwanda

• Rwanda to increase spending by 11% in 2024/25, finance minister says

Rwanda plans to increase its overall spending by 11% to 5.69 trillion Rwandan francs ($4.43 billion) in the next financial year starting in July, its finance minister said on Monday. A total of 1.32 trillion francs in the draft 2024/25 budget would come from external loans, Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana said, without giving details on what kind of borrowing the government was considering.
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• Rwanda scheme ‘could cost UK nearly £5bn in first five years’ for 30,000 migrants

Rwanda is ready to take more than 30,000 asylum seekers in the first five years of the deportation scheme at a potential cost to the UK of nearly £5 billion, leaked documents show. The Home Office documents say that although the scheme will start in a “tightly controlled” way with as few as 500 migrants deported in the first year, the agreement is designed to “incentivise” Rwanda to take “higher volumes”.
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Uganda

• Uganda Plans Pivot From Commercial Loans After Racking Up Debt

Uganda plans to pull back from variable interest-rate loans after government debt has more than doubled in almost five years because of obtaining costly commercial credit, the East African nation’s Finance Ministry said.
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• Uganda April Whole Economy PMI 52.6 vs 49.3 in March

The headline PMI posted at 52.6 in April, up from 49.3 in March, and signalled a renewed upturn in the health of the Ugandan private sector. The monthly improvement in business conditions was the seventeenth in the last year-and-a-half. Supporting overall growth was a return to expansion in new orders in April.
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• Uganda’s inflation rate slows to 3.2% in April

Uganda’s annual inflation rate for the 12 months to April 2024 slowed to 3.2%, down from 3.3% in March 2024. The annual core inflation rate remained at 3.5%. During the review period, prices of bananas, sweet potatoes, beans and yellow bananas (bogoya) decreased compared to the same time last year.
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South Africa
Angola

• Angola secures US$10.5M for trio of diamonds from Lulo mine

Australian mining company Lucapa has sold a trio of diamonds for a total of $10.5 million from the Lulo alluvial mine in Lunda Norte, Angola. The sale – measuring a total of 361 carats – was facilitated by Angola’s state-owned diamond trading company Sodiam, fetching an average price of $29,000 per carat.
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• Angola Central Bank Says Sold $200m at Foreign Currency Auction

Angola’s central bank says it sold $200 million of foreign currency to commercial banks at an auction on Monday. The currency was sold to 17 commercial banks in Angola at 843.53 kwanza to the dollar, the Luanda-based bank says in a statement on its website.
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• Angola Agrees Deal With China State Bank to Ease Debt

Angola has agreed with the China Development Bank to release cash held as collateral for a multibillion-dollar loan, the country’s finance minister Vera Daves De Sousa says in an interview with the Financial Times. China Development Bank required Angola to top up cash collateral in a special escrow account as security to a minimum amount of $1.5bn.
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South Africa

• Shell to Sell the Rest of Its South Africa Fuel-Supply Business

Shell Plc plans to divest from its fuel-supply businesses in South Africa, a process set in motion years ago when it shut the biggest oil refinery in the country. The decision to sell the shareholding in Shell Downstream South Africa “was not taken lightly” and followed a review of the business across all regions and markets, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
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• South Africa’s economic activity picks up in April

South Africa’s economic performance has improved in April as an official index measuring interbank transactions reached to the highest level in eight months. BankservAfrica, the country’s largest clearing house, said Wednesday that the BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (BETI), which measures all interbank economic activity, hit 134.2 in April, improving by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis and reaching the level recorded in August last year.
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• South Africa’s President signs party funding bill into law

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa signs a party funding bill into law, but opposition parties say the changes are unconstitutional, with some political critics even planning on mounting a legal challenge.
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• South Africa moots new coal-plant closure to secure $2.6 billion

South Africa will provide a new timeline for the shutdown of coal-fired power plants in a bid to secure about $2.5 billion in climate finance, an agency in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said.
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Zambia

• Turkey’s Yeo to Build Solar Plant, Storage System in Zambia

Yeo Enerji, a unit of listed Yeo Teknoloji, started to develop a solar power plant integrated with energy storage system in Zambia, according to exchange filing. Project carried out under an SPV whose %75 shareholder is Yeo Enerji while %25 is owned by a local partner.
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• Zambia’s Currency Plunges to Record Low as Drought Saps Economy

Zambia’s currency depreciated to a record low against the dollar as the economy struggles with the worst drought in more than four decades and a debt restructuring process that’s dragged on for years. The weakness will amplify price pressures as the nation ramps up food and electricity imports. Annual inflation is already at a more than two-year high of 13.8%.
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• UN Agency Appeals for $228 Million to Help Drought-Hit Zambia

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs appealed for $228 million to help Zambia deal with what it said was the driest farming season in more than four decades.  The nation’s cereal production is forecast to nearly halve because of the drought and 6.6 million people need help, the agency said in a statement Tuesday.
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Zimbabwe

• Zimbabwe Will Convert Annual Budget to Reflect New Currency

Zimbabwe will convert its annual budget to its gold-backed currency, the ZiG, which went into circulation last month, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. “That should be ready at the end of the month, beginning of next month we will be able to show you the ZiG equivalent of the budget,” Ncube told lawmakers at the nation’s parliament in Mount Hampden.
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• Zimbabwe Plans Rule to Enforce Use of Official ZiG Exchange Rate

Zimbabwe plans new rules to compel businesses to only use the official exchange rate of its gold-backed currency, the ZiG, when pricing goods and services. The move, announced Tuesday by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, is aimed at preventing the development of an unofficial market in the ZiG, which flourished during previous versions of the local Zimbabwean currency and contributed to their failure.
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• Worst Drought in Four Decades Cuts Zimbabwean Corn Crop by 72%

Corn output in Zimbabwe will drop by almost three-quarters this year as the nation experiences its worst drought in four decades, according to the government. Output of the staple grain in the 2023-24 season that ends May 31 is estimated at 634,699 tons, down 72% from last year, according to a final crop assessment seen by Bloomberg and confirmed by the Agriculture Ministry. That compares with a previous forecast of 868,237 tons.
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Central Africa
Democratic Republic of Congo

• DRC to access $200M from IMF to strengthen reserves

The Democratic Republic of Congo will access more than $200 million from the International Monetary Fund to build its international reserves from July this year. The East African Community (EAC) member state has concluded staff level agreement with the multilateral lender for the sixth and last review under the three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) whose total support amounted to $1.52 billion. Completion of the review will make SDR152.3 million (slightly more than US$200 million) available to build up international reserves. Upon approval by the IMF Executive Board, the funds are expected to help the DRC ease fiscal pressure coming from heavy security spending.
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• Ethiopia, DR Congo Sign Air Transport Agreement

Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have officially signed an aviation sector cooperation agreement, as confirmed by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority. The agreement is expected to facilitate Ethiopian Airlines in enhancing the efficiency of its air transport services, expanding its range of flight destinations, and notably commencing additional flights to the city of Kisangani within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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• Congo, Uganda: Armies To Allocate More Funding To Boost Operations Against ADF

High-level military officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda agreed to increase funding for joint counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State-backed Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF. The military officials expressed satisfaction with the progress of operation “Shujaa,” noting the elimination, capture and surrender of numerous ADF fighters.
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