Author: Ibrahima jr Dia

UK development finance institution and impact investor CDC Group announced on Thursday (November 25th) that it had appointed Diana Layfield (pictured) as the new chair of the board, replacing Sir Graham Wrigley who will step down in early 2022. Diana will be joining as a non-executive director. Until then President of EMEA Partnerships & VP Product Managment at Google, Diana Layfield is also Non-Executive Director at AstraZeneca. Prior to Google, she held senior positions at Standard Chartered Bank, including Managing Director Africa Region. Before joining Standard Chartered in 2004, she was CEO of a technology start-up. The first woman to…

Commercial International Bank (CIB), the main bank in the Egyptian private sector, has launched its green bond program to mainly support the financing of green projects in Egypt, we learned Thursday, November 25 from internal sources of the group. This initiative should help support the green economy and help increase the share of renewable energies in the Egyptian energy mix. “We believe our efforts to support green projects nationwide will boost the green bond market and hopefully inspire other issuers to follow suit in order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050,” said Hussein Abaza, CEO of CIB. Issuers, investors…

First City Monument Bank (FCMB), a financial services group based in Lagos, Nigeria, posted net profit of 13.8 billion naira (34 million USD) in the first nine months of the year, down slightly less than 1% year-on-year, according to financial results released to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). However, on a quarterly basis, the group recorded a 57% increase in net income to 6.2 billion naira (15 million USD) from 4 billion naira (10 million USD) recorded in the second quarter of 2021. At the end of the third quarter, gross sales increased slightly by 2% year-on-year to 149.4 billion…

The Bank of Africa group published on November 22, 2021 on the Casablanca stock exchange, its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. It shows a performance of its main financial indicators. Thus, the Net Income Group Share increased by 35% to 1.7 billion DH (184 million USD) compared to the same period of the previous year. For its part, the Social Net Income recorded an increase of 40% to 1.4 billion DH (152 million USD) – excluding the exceptional contribution to the Covid-19 Donation. In addition, consolidated net banking income stood at 10.8 billion dirhams (1.1…

Kenyan banking group KCB has announced its intention to acquire, next year, a 24% stake held by minority investors in its Rwandan subsidiary Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc (BPR). The Kenyan multinational bank recently completed the acquisition of a 62% stake from London-based Atlas Mara Limited, and another 14% from private equity firm Arise, bringing its stake in BPR to 76%. A full buyout of BPR would cost KCB around 6.4 billion shillings ($ 57 million), if minority investors are offered the same terms as Atlas Mara, which received 3.7 billion shillings ($ 33 ​​million) in exchange for its shares.…

Co-operative Bank of Kenya posted net profit up 18.9 percent to 12 billion shillings (107 million USD) in the first nine months of the year, according to quarterly results released by the Kenyan bank. This performance is due to an increase in interest and non-interest income. At the end of the third quarter, the bank’s net income stood at 11.6 billion shillings (104 million USD), compared to 9.7 billion shillings (87 million USD) a year earlier. In terms of total interest income, it rose 21.5 percent to 39.5 billion shillings (353 million USD) as the banking institution expanded its loan…

IHS Towers, an independent multinational tower company in the world, has acquired 5,709 telecommunications towers from MTN for 412 million USD in South Africa, we learned on Wednesday (November 17th) from sources familiar with the matter. It will be responsible for providing Power-as-a-Service (PaaS) to MTN at approximately 12,800 sites across the country, including the acquired sites. The assets acquired and the provision of PaaS across MTN’s portfolio are expected to generate revenues and adjusted EBITDA of $ 220 million and $ 80 million, respectively, in the first full year of operations. According to Sam Darwish, chief executive officer of…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that by allowing unbanked people with cell phones to access e-naira in Nigeria, 90% of the population will adopt virtual currency. In a recently released report titled “Five Observations on Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency”, the international financial institution indicated that Nigeria is a large informal economy where the majority of the population has no accounts. banking. The IMF has mentioned that e-naira should improve financial inclusion if the informal sector (majority of people without bank accounts) is involved. However, the monetary institution regrets that for the moment the e-naira wallet is provided…

The Vodacom Group released its results for the quarter ended September 2021 on Monday (November 15th). The data shows a 4.2% increase in revenue to 49.9 billion rand (3.2 billion USD) over the course of of the first nine months of the year. During this period, the operator says it added 6.2 million customers, to serve a total of 129.9 million customers, while declaring an interim dividend of 420 cents per share, up 1.2%. For its part, overall earnings per share fell to 505 cents per share, from 532 cents per share previously. But increased by 3% after the one-time…

The West African Center for Banking Training and Studies (COFEB), a training and research center of the BCEAO, and HEC Paris organized on Thursday, November 11 in Dakar (Senegal), a ceremony to award the certificates of the first 2021 edition of the Course on strategic banking management. This course entitled “Certificate of Executive Strategic Banking Management (CEMSTRAT)” is part of the capacity building of managers of banks and financial institutions in the Union and the sub-region in the areas of management and banking strategy. . In total, 46 recipients (administrators, general managers, etc.) from banks and financial institutions in the…

Safaricom achieved net profit up 12.1% to 37.05 billion shillings (332 million USD) in the first nine months of the year, according to financial results released by Kenya’s largest telecommunications provider . This performance is due to the increase in income of M-Pesa (the microfinance and mobile money transfer service) which took advantage of the end of free transactions decided by the State to support clients during the period. of Covid-19. M-Pesa’s revenue jumped 45.8% to 52.3 billion shillings (468 million USD), supported by the return to billing of transactions below 1,000 shillings (8.96 USD) in January. The platform also…

Meta, a social technology company, announced Tuesday, November 9, that it has launched its new platform called “Facebook Business Coach” on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. This tool should enable owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and other English-speaking countries in Africa to learn more about how to grow their business online. Available on WhatsApp, the Facebook Business Coach is a free, low-data, educational chatbot tool that users can interact with in an easy, conversational, and convenient way. SMBs have access to self-paced, automated courses that teach them how to establish a presence in today’s…

Wicrypt, a Nigerian blockchain-based Wi-Fi sharing startup, announced it raised $ 1.5 million in a fundraising round. Funding was led by AU21 Capital, Inclusion Capital and Outlier Ventures, among others. The newly secured fund is expected to help the decentralized mobile internet sharing and monetization network expand into new countries. The “platform had formed substantial business partnerships in Africa, but the funding will further allow expansion into new countries by increasing marketing efforts,” said Ugochukwu Aronu, the CEO of Wicrypt. Initially launched in 2018, the startup became profitable in 2020 and signed an exclusive partnership with the city of Enugu,…

Equity Bank Kenya Limited announced on Monday (November 8th) its intention to buy Britam’s stake in HF Group, a mortgage finance provider in Kenya. The Nairobi-based bank has said it will review its stake in HF, seven years after selling its 24.7% stake to the insurance group. Last March, insurer Britam announced it was selling its majority stake in HF Group to focus on the insurance business. With this in mind, the company plans to sell part of its stake in HF Group to one of the country’s major banks as part of the review of its investment portfolio. “We…

TymeBank, a South African-based exclusively digital retail bank, announced on Thursday (November 4th) that it had reached the 4 million customer mark by the end of October 2021. The digital bank said it continues to experience rapid monthly growth with more of 140,000 clients per month. “We are delighted to have reached a base of four million customers in approximately 32 months,” said TymeBank Managing Director Tauriq Keraan. He added: “We have expanded our offering and improved product functionality to ensure that we can offer customers everything they need in one bank account while allowing them to pay little -…

Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company, has raised $ 150 million in a Series C extension round, valuing itself at $ 2 billion. The roundtable was led by the cryptocurrency exchange FTX of Sam Bankman-Fried, Deciens Capital, and One Way Ventures, among others. According to Ham Serunjogi, co-founder of Chipper Cash, the company’s strategy is to provide the “best price” while making it easier to transfer money from Africa to the United States. Peer-to-peer money transfers from the United States to Nigeria and Uganda, he points out, are now available to customers in those countries. Before the end of…

Centum Investment Group announced at the end of last week that it is in negotiations to acquire three companies based in Kenya and two others in neighboring countries. The company has not released the names of these structures. However, the group said it plans to invest up to 5 billion shillings (US $ 45 million) over the next five years in various sectors of the economy. Centum has in the past acquired significant stakes in companies operating in a variety of industries, including financial services, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), manufacturing, energy, education and technology. “We are building a pipeline…

Starsight Energy, West Africa’s leading commercial and industrial clean off-grid energy supplier, has become the first renewable energy company in Nigeria to achieve carbon credit accreditation. It achieved certification by switching its customers’ power and cooling from predominantly diesel-based electricity to a combination of solar, battery and diesel hybrid systems. With this certification, Starsight became the first renewable energy company to generate carbon credits from the CO2 emission reductions provided by the combination of solar production and energy efficiency initiatives in Nigeria. The possibility of selling carbon credits should provide additional sources of income for Starsight. The company helps reduce…

Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank in terms of assets, has partnered with Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payment technology company, internal group sources reported Thursday (October 28th). The main objective of this initiative is to improve the digital payment experiences of its customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Ivory Coast and Malawi. The two entities are working together to create e-commerce, card issuance, payments, collection, USSD, loan and buy-now capabilities for millions of Africans. The integration will need to help customers, including individuals, SMEs, large enterprises and institutions, to take full advantage of the power of digital payments and e-commerce…

Nairobi-based venture capital fund Antler East Africa announced on October 29, 2021 that it had raised 1.6 billion shillings ($ 15 million) from institutional investors, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), for invest in local and regional start-ups. The company claims to have invested 11.1 million shillings (US $ 100,000) for a 20% stake in each company selected by its investment committee. IFC is set to invest a total of 222 million shillings ($ 2 million) in Antler, which will mobilize the remainder of the capital from other investors. “The fund seeks to raise USD 15 million in capital commitments.…

South African fintech AIP Stitch announced Thursday, October 28, that it had raised USD 2 million for its expansion project in Nigeria. The roundtable was led by Firstminute Capital, CRE, Village Global, 500 Fintech, and Future Africa, among others. The South African start-up got an additional $ 2 million for its funding round after raising $ 4 million earlier this year, bringing its total funding round to $ 6 million. Stitch will launch with a transparent and token bank payment offering to help Nigerian businesses and fintechs improve their user experience, eliminate fraud, and lower fees associated with alternative payment…

South African microfinance firm Barko announced Thursday, October 28, that it will launch a new digital bank built on Temenos Transact and powered by The Temenos Banking Cloud. The institution has applied for a mutual banking license to operate as a full-service digital bank. Leveraging Temenos’ comprehensive front-to-back services, Barko aims to deliver banking products that are easy to consume, configure and integrate with external applications. These capabilities should enable it to help underserved and unbanked South Africans with longer-term and lower-cost loans, competitive affordable banking products and easy-to-use services with a seamless experience across its digital channels and its…

Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is expected to grow 3.7 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The Bretton Woods institution noted that this progress is welcome, but still represents the slowest recovery compared to other regions. According to Ethiopian Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the Fund’s Africa department, the economic outlook differs on three levels: between sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, and within countries. The official notes that these discrepancies reflect the slower deployment of vaccines in the region, more limited fiscal space and regional disparities in resilience. The outlook, he stresses, remains extremely…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has revealed nearly USD 3.097 billion in investment opportunities in the country’s condensate refinery space. Indeed, the company stressed that it needed $ 1.6-2.7 billion to improve the supply and distribution of petroleum products, renovate liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) infrastructure and build factories. of compressed natural gas (CNG). Nigeria’s demand for petroleum products is forecast to increase from 15.1 million tonnes in 2020 to 17.3 million metric tonnes by 2025. “The country would need a refining capacity of about 1, 52 million barrels per day (MBPSD) to meet its gasoline needs over the next…

The Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE) and Misr Life Insurance Company signed earlier this week an agreement whereby the bank allows the insurer to market and deliver its insurance services and programs through 100 branches of the bank. Across the country. This agreement aims to contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the Decent Life Initiative, by providing all its banking and financial services and ensuring that they reach a large sector of the rural population. “This step aims to support the bank’s efforts to diversify its banking services and products,” said Alaa Farouk, president of ABE. The official…

United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Monday, October 25, released its audited quarterly financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. The Lagos, Nigeria-based bank posted a jump in profits during the reporting period. Indeed, after-tax profit rose 36% to 104.6 billion naira (255 million USD), against 77.1 billion naira (188 million USD) recorded a year earlier. For its part, operating profit increased 13% year-on-year to close at 331.7 billion naira (809 million USD), from 293.7 billion naira (716 million USD) in September 2020. Regarding profit before tax, it increased by 37%, or 123.4 billion naira (301 million USD)…

S&P Global Ratings confirmed this weekend its long-term “B” and “B” short-term sovereign credit ratings on Togo. The outlook is stable. The agency said the stable outlook reflects the view that Togo will continue to implement structural economic reforms, leading to a gradual improvement in economic and fiscal performance. “Upward ratings could occur if Togo’s economic growth is significantly stronger than expected, while the external and budgetary deficits, and the net public debt as a percentage of GDP, decrease significantly”, notes the agency, recalling that “Ratings could come under pressure if the government’s fiscal performance deteriorates beyond expectations, and if…

The Nigerian bank, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, based in Lagos, announced on Monday, October 25, its partnership with Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System plc (NIBSS) on its Nigeria Quick Response (NQR) payment solution. The recently launched platform is an innovative payment option implemented for all financial service providers. It is designed to promote fast transactions by scanning the code on their mobile device. Additionally, the initiative helps lower costs for merchants and banks by providing instant value for person-to-business (P2B) and person-to-person (P2P) transactions by simply scanning to pay. Unlike other QR systems, NQR is implemented at lower cost for…

The Co-operative Bank’s net profit was 7.4 billion shillings (68 million USD) in the first half of 2021, an increase of 2.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. This performance is mainly due to the growth in interest income. According to the financial statements of the Kenyan bank, net interest income increased by 18% to 18.8 billion shillings (172 million USD) while non-interest income increased by 24% to 10.3 billion shillings (94 million USD). Regarding the loan portfolio, it increased by 11% to 302.1 billion shillings. The cooperative’s operating expenses, for their part, increased by 28% (4.1…

Absa Group Limited, a financial services group, released its financial results for the first half of 2021 on Monday (August 16th). The data shows that the group’s overall profit quintupled to reach 8.6 billion rand (580 million USD). , which is higher than pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. This performance is supported by resilient growth in earnings before provisions and a significant decrease in impairments. Absa’s Retail and Business Banking (RBB), which generates the bulk of the group’s revenue, increased its overall profits eightfold to 4.2 billion rand (283 million USD). RBB has invested heavily in digital and has made tremendous strides…