Author: The Editor

The head of state and Chief Investment Officer in Africa’s red metal hotspot has called for banks and other financial partners to price capital fairly in funding transactions that will actualize the protocols that ‘Africa’s Copperbelt’ (Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo) signed to support global decarbonization initiatives through production of electric car batteries and clean energy generation. These are initiatives that will reduce carbon emissions significantly. President Hakainde Hichilema said this in his signing ceremony speech on April 29 in the capital Lusaka. Speaking during the ceremony Hichilema said, “Signing is just but one step but the English saying…

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The central bank in Africa’s red metal hotspot last Friday April 29 saw renewed interest in its fixed income offering as players priced in a more positive debt restructure outlook. This is supported by the recent IMF Spring sessions development concerning China’s stance to join Zambia debt restructure creditor club under the G20 common framework. Of the K3.4 billion appetite in bids, the Bank of Zambia absorbed K2.3 billion worth of bonds with significant interest in the 2,3 and 5 year tenors account for 75.0% of the sale. Proceeds of the sale were the second highest in 2022. READ ALSO:…

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Ranked almost at par with geopolitics, climate change is a key threat that the world faces for which decarbonization efforts to preserve the planet have intensified. If no urgent action is taken the world stands to lose 10% ($23trillion) of gross domestic product by 2050. In the labyrinth of these hurdles, Africa’s base metal producers are, like yesterday, positioning themselves for opportunity to partner in indirectly ‘carbon – sequestrating’ the environment through their natural mineral resource capital offerings such as copper and cobalt. One of the most significant efforts recorded in history, is the most recent landmark plethora of agreements…

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Risk skew in Africa’s second largest copper producer Zambia is skewing towards longer dated tenors for Kwacha government securities as geopolitics autopsies. Thursday April 21 treasury bill sale saw the first undersubscription of the year 2022 with the central bank raising K580.8 million of the K2 billion of assets on offer. Appetite was fairly weak at K632.3 million with significant interest in the 6 months tenor. The yield curve continues to sag with the 6 and 9 months ebbing 19.75 and 70 basis points to 10.8024% and 11.0001% respectively as the 1 year rose 47 bps to 13.7500%. The Kwacha…

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Africa’s second largest red metal producer Zambia just took a positive cue from developments at the 2022 IMF Spring meetings in Washington DC when China, the worlds second largest economy, finally agreed to assist the Southern African nation, under the common framework of the G20, in its quest restructure its foreign debt. This follows series of engagements that kept markets in fret over when Zambia would seal a financing deal with the Washington based lender, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Zambia has been in a debt labyrinth that saw the red metal producer slip coupon payments on its dollar bonds…

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According to the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) index, global food prices for the month of March scaled higher by 12.6% to 159.3 points, the highest seen since the index was launched in 1990. This was attributed to a plethora of factor key being the food supply disruptions as a consequence of the Russo – Ukrainian war impacting meat exports and other bottlenecks such as dairy shortages in Europe. The FAO report that vegetable oils, cereals and meat sub-indexes all climbed to record highs while the sugar and dairy indexes similarly jumped. The current state of the world given the geopolitics…

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Africa’s second largest copper producer Zambia is witnessing a wind of policy change following the outcome of the August 2021 polls. As political risks subside, the Southern African nation is seeing more policy inclined changes that are more private sector skewed as the red metal producer signals to the world that its is indeed open for business. One landmark development in the week is the reuniting of the state power utility ZESCO Limited with Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) Copperbelt Energy Corporation in agreeing a new power Bulk Supply Agreement (BSA) which was effected on April 01.  This development is key…

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“Dr. Livingstone I presume,” Henry Morton Stanley said on the shores of Lake Tanganyika when he met David Livingstone at Ujiji village in 1873. Stanley traced Livingstone because of the letters he wrote back to Scotland. In this write up we appreciate the concept of visibility of Livingstone, a city that houses one of the world’s natural wonders the mighty Victoria falls, a city that was a venue to the most recent epic meeting that two great sons of Africa, Hakainde Hichilema and Paul Kagame used to strengthen their diplomatic ties. One of the most prolific events of the week…

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Africa’s second largest copper producer, Zambia, is targeting to conclude a financial assistance deal with the Washington based lender, the International Monetary Fund by June. This was contained in the Ministry of Finance Heads presentation on first quarter performance of the Zambian economy.  “We have crossed the Staff Level Agreement milestone sometime last year and what we await is an IMF deal which we target a formal agreement by mid – year,” Musokotwane said in his speech. The Finance Minister highlighted the room for concessionary borrowing that the copper producer will have after a formal agreement is concluded that will…

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The Ministry of Finance in Africa’s red metal hotspot Zambia revealed that its suspension of some taxes on petroleum products has continued to provide a buffer for the upward pressure on fuel prices. This was contained in the MinFin Head Dr. Musokotwane’s presentation on the 1Q22 performance of the Southern African nations economy. “The current fuel prices do have a subsidy component from the suspension of tax on petroleum products. Some taxes on petroleum products have been suspended for a while,” Musokotwane said. In December of 2021, the red metal producer announced a rethink to its fiscal purse after implementing…

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