London Institute Banking Fellow – LIBF and Housing Development Finance Professional Joseph Mwansa Chikolwa has been named Board Chairman by Ecobank Zambia effective June 21 taking over from Chileshe Kapwepwe. This appointment is one of the many directorate changes that the banking sector in Africa’s second largest copper producer Zambia has seen in the year. The first wave of directorate appointments saw former central bank deputy governors ascend to chair boards of financial institutions. Read also: UBA Zambia board will be headed by former central banker Dr. Mabula Read also: Former Deputy Governor Ops and World Bank Consultant, Dr. Mwape…
Author: The Editor
As Africa’s second largest copper producer, Zambia faces a deadly third wave of the COVID19 pandemic, its healthcare posture remains stretched with scarcity in bed spaces, oxygen supply and other medical equipment. The gravity of healthcare hurdle is such that these bottlenecks are a reflection of readiness, a systematic concern across the world. However this period has also revealed leadership responsiveness to the pandemic as the private sector demonstrates elasticity to the need to complement state efforts in a limited public finance environment to curbing the spread and ultimately save lives. Zambia’s largest and most profitable indigenous bank, Zambia National…
As the corona virus pandemic thickens in Africa’s red metal hotspot Zambia, oxygen demand continues to soar. With Zambia facing a third wave with positivity levels of 28.0% in winter descent, healthcare facilities continue to bear the brunt of increasing hospitalisation cases competing not only for bed spaces but medicines and above all oxygen to keep patients alive. Oxygen has become ‘the diamond of the health sector’ and as such remains very scarce and costly. Africa’s 2017 FCMG Company of the year by African Leadership Magazine, the Trade Kings Group, through its Universal Mining and Chemical Industrials Limited – UMCIL…
It’s an element with atomic number 29 and relative atomic mass of 63.546 on Mendeleevs periodic table for chemical engineers, while scientists in these pandemic times say the metal is poisonous to the deadly cororna virus. To Chile, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mongolia and Zambia it spells tax revenues for public finance balancing. To the business faculty, Dr. Copper is a bellwether and barometer for economic pulse. Copper, the metal used in manufacture of electric wires has just cemented its bullish case on the London Metal Exchange – LME after a trillion and half dollars worth of potential…
Zambia’s central bank has continued to see strong interest for 5 year bonds which were the most sought in June 25 debt sale yielding 32.0%. The Bank of Zambia – BOZ raised a total of K1.1 billion at cost of the K1.5 billion worth of assets on offer. Appetite in bids was reported at K2.2 billion at face value of which K2.0 billion was allocated. Read: BOZ raises 2-yards in bond sale as investor sentiment on Zambia beams Friday’s auction skew was concentrated on the medium term portion of the yield curve, taking up 88.0% of the proceeds, a deviation…
Washington based lender the International Monetary Fund – IMF in the coming weeks is set to approve an increase in Special Drawing Rights – SDRs for its members totalling an additional $650 billion. This comes a few weeks after the worlds richest nations, the G7 recently met at their annual summit where deliberations concerning how to assist developing nations fight COVID19 and global combating of climate change were key agenda items. France stood out to drive reallocation of $100 billion of the new reserves from the SDR which it committed to channel $33 billion of its quota (SDR) to Africa…
As the Lusaka Securities Exchange – LuSE listed Lafarge Zambia (ZM:ISIN000000011) stock rallied 28.0% in the week beginning June 21 as traders seek price discovery in the labyrinth of uncertainty following an array of corporate actions. Lafarge has faced a series of hurdles such as a pricing fixing fine by the Zambian competition regulatory authority which it has refuted and commenced a process of appealing while frail economic conditions such as currency weakness coerced the cement giant into hiking prices to cushion rising manufacturing costs. Gypsum bottlenecks following the Chambishi metals business slow down has impacted the input side of…
As meat prices in Africa’s second largest copper hotspot, Zambia continue to scale higher for beef, chicken and fish the food component of the Consumer Price Index – CPI continues to weigh overall inflation. According to the Zambia Statistics Agency – ZSA report for June, annual inflation accelerated 140 points to a 19 year high of 24.6% fuelled by a 2.7% rally in food inflation to 31.2% while the non food side was unchanged at 17.1%. Monthly overall inflation decreased to 1.3% from 2.0% in May. Monthly food inflation decreased to 1.5% from 2.5% compared to monthly non-food inflation that eased 0.3% to…
As the world joins Zambia in mourning and celebrating the life of its First Republican President Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda, memories about the legacies he has left linger on. Asides leading Zambia’s industrialisation drive and being the Moses of Africa’s second largest copper producer that led the Southern African nation out of the palms of British colonial rule, Dr. Kaunda will forever be remembered for his unity strides (one Zambia one nation), fight against HIV and AIDS, tiyende pamodzi (walking together), housing South African, Zimbabwean and many other freedom fighters from apartheid rule and above all economic liberation initiatives to…
Shipping costs have elevated significantly due to rising backlogs as economies reopen. Pandemic induced disruption has delayed shipping to some extent.