Category: Finance

India to lead worldwide consumer growth with 31% of new consumers; digital economy to surpass US$1 trillion in Latin America (LatAm) and Africa

CURITIBA, Brazil, January 25, 2024/ — Clients in major rising economies like Brazil, India, Kenya, and Nigeria are pulling the global digital market up by paying online purchases with instant payments, transfers, and other alternative payment methods – including for B2B transactions; Cards are still strong in digital, with high penetration of domestic brands and debit bringing new consumers to the online sales world, points out the new EBANX’s (www.EBANX.com) Beyond Borders study; Digital payments in Africa have jumped from a 23% to a 46% penetration rate in less than eight years and…

Burundi: African Development Bank helps train managers on programme-budget implementation in public administration

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, January 18, 2024/ — The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has supported the capacity building of about 50 managers from Burundi’s public administration to consolidate implementation of the programme budget currently under deployment. The training sessions, which ran from 22 November to 23 December 2023, covered the preparation of work plans and the annual budget, quarterly progress reports, and annual performance reports in addition to developing a results-oriented public investment programme. Training also covered the identification of public-private partnership projects, pre-assessments and contract negotiations. Course participants welcomed the great…

Saudi Arabia and UAE officially join Brics: What will it mean for the bloc?

Fareed Rahman Jan 01, 2024 The expansion of the Brics bloc to include Saudi Arabia and the UAE is expected to offer new investment opportunities for the Arab world’s two largest economies while boosting the group’s influence globally, analysts said. Saudi Arabia along with the UAE, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia joined Brics on January 1, doubling its membership to 10, with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa the original members. “Expansion of the Brics multilateral bloc to include Saudi Arabia and UAE augurs extremely well amid ongoing geopolitical and economic challenges confronting the…

African Development Bank approves $696.41 million of financing for Burundi and Tanzania to build 650 kilometers of rail infrastructure to develop the Central Corridor network

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, December 13, 2023/ — The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved various financing structures valued at $696.41 million for Burundi and Tanzania to start Phase II of the Joint Tanzania-Burundi-DR Congo Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Project. The Bank Group’s financing is intended to construct 651 kilometers on the Tanzania-Burundi railway line. The work will consist of the development of a single electrified standard gauge track. This will be subdivided into three lots: Tabora – Kigoma (411 km) and Uvinza – Malagarasi…

Navigating the Dynamic Landscape of the Global Online Trading Market

By Boriss Gubaidulin, Africa Director, Admirals  The global online trading market has witnessed a remarkable upswing, fuelled by technological advancements and the widespread accessibility of the internet. This surge in popularity and increase of the global market size to USD9.32bn in 2022 has been instrumental in democratising investment opportunities, enabling individuals from various corners of the world to partake in online trading. Based on a comprehensive analysis conducted by Grand View Research in 2020, the global online trading market showcased a valuation of approximately USD15.47 billion in 2019. Notably, this…

EDITORIAL COMMENT

To issue international sovereign bonds, financial markets require countries to have a credit rating from at least one or more of the three leading international credit rating agencies (CRAs) namely, Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s (S&P). This constitutes a minimum requirement for capital market borrowing by market regulators, as adherence to international best practices of information disclosure and to reach out to a wider base of potential investors. The Financial and economic cost implications for Africa emanating from subjective credit ratings by international rating agencies(CRAs) has since left some…

African Union plans to launch its own credit ratings agency

FINANCIAL SERVICES African Union plans to launch its own credit ratings agency Kenya shilling coins and notes are pictured inside a cashier’s booth at a forex exchange bureau in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Reuters Images The agency, which would craft its own assessment of the risks in lending to African countries Libby George, Reuters News September 12, 2023 ECONOMYAFRICAFINANCIAL SERVICES The African Union plans to launch a new African credit rating agency next year to address the group’s concerns that ratings given to countries on the continent…

Afreximbank and China Development Bank sign US$400-million loan to support Africa SMEs

Cairo, 28 Aug. 2023: – The China Development Bank (CDB) today in Cairo signed a development-focused agreement to provide the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) with a US$400-million term loan facility to support the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. The agreement, signed by Mr. Tan Jiong, President of CDB, and Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, at the Afreximbank Headquarters in Cairo, provides for Afreximbank to deploy the facility to support African SMEs involved in extra- and intra-African trade and those…

Online trading: What does psychology have to do with it?

By Boriss Gubaidulin, Admirals Africa Director The term “behavioural finance” which took hold in the 1990s examined what role emotions play in investment decision-making. Why should psychology and trading be linked? The simple answer is that we are hard-wired as humans to be emotional, and – let’s face it – when it comes to financial matters, emotional consideration come into play. In investing, the two most powerful emotions have been identified as fear and greed. So much so that CNN Business created the Fear & Greed Index to measure exactly how emotions…

Global fintech giant invests in sustainable communities in West and Southern Africa 

Having pioneered the development of online trading and digital investment solutions 22 years ago, global fintech company Admirals is today considered a market-leading provider of an innovative range of online trading and investment products.   The Admirals suite of products includes leveraged Contracts for Difference (CFD) products in the over-the-counter market, including Forex, indices, commodities, digital currencies, stocks, and ETFs, as well as listed instruments to retail, professional, and institutional clients.  The company is steadily increasing its footprint in Africa, having opened its first African office in Cape Town, South Africa…