Electron Native

South Africa’s rand has weakened early on Monday. The rainbow nations currency slumped to its weakest in almost a week. A fact blamed on the trade tensions between China and the United States. At 0615 GMT the rand was 0.2 percent weaker and sold at 15.3300 per U.S. dollar compared to a close at 15.3000 per U.S. dollar on Friday in New York. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday heaped an additional 5 percent duty on some 550 billion U.S. dollars in targeted Chinese goods, just hours after China unveiled tariffs on 75 billion U.S. dollars worth of American goods. The rand has suffered in August, sliding around 12 percent as local pressures linked to the growing chance of a credit downgrade to junk by Moody’s, and uncertainty offshore, have stalled any long bets on the currency. Africa’s most industrialised economy relies on exports to China and the United States for a bulk of its revenue, and the deepening spat between the two super powers risks denting the country’s alr...

A San Francisco-based technological nonprofit organisation, Kiva, is using blockchain to create an online ID database in Sierra Leone. This will allow people to get loans by having a credit history, provide  Financial Inclusion for them.   kiva Source : Kiva.org Kiva and President Julius Maada Bio officially launched the system in the capital Freetown mid-week. President Bio hopes it will bring more Sierra Leoneans into the financial system. Kiva already facilitates small loans in 80 countries, but Sierra Leone is the first country to implement an online credit system designed by the organisation. More than three quarters of Sierra Leone’s population lies outside the formal banking sector, according to data from the central bank. Informal institutions like community banks and microfinance lenders are more common, but they rarely share credit information and often charge extortionate interest rates. The platform will enable l...

Uganda has ordered non-governmental organisations in the country to submit their financial information including budgets and donor lists to the authorities. This has been met with criticism from rights groups as another attempt to silence dissent. The government of President Yoweri Museveni, has had long face off’s with NGOs and others of alleged and reported excesses including corruption, torture, illegal detentions and extra-judicial killings. Over the last year several government officials have been quoted in local media accusing Bobi Wine, a musician-turned-legislator who says he will seek the presidency at the next election, of being funded by unnamed foreign agents. Steven Okello, executive director of the state-run National Bureau for NGOs says that the organisation was undertaking a “verification and validation” exercise for all non-profits operating in the country and that this included filing of financial records. Uganda’...

South Sudan has found crude oil. The discovery occurred in the Northern Upper Nile State, and  its the first since independence in 2011. Minister of Petroleum and Mining, Awow Daniel Chuang says the new field in the Adar area of the state contains 5.3 million barrels of recoverable oil. Awow Daniel Chuang Source : voanews.com He adds that it will be linked to the nearby Paloch oilfields, which are operated by Dar Petroleum Operating Company and production is likely to begin towards the end of the year. The country gets almost all its revenue from oil and has boosted output, now at 180,000 barrels per day, as it struggles to rebuild its economy after a five-year civil war. Most of the East African nation’s oil infrastructure got damaged in the conflict, during which about 400,000 people were killed and more than a third of the 12 million population uprooted. The government is keen to reach pre-war oil production levels of 350,...

Moody’s has given a possible solution to South Africa on her financial problems. The Credit rating agency says the country can fund the needed bailout for electric power utility Eskom but it must make more cuts in other areas. Moody's Credit rating Agency Source: Pionline.com   Moody’s made the announcement in a statement released on Thursday, as South Africa prepares its mid-year budget review. With this advice the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has room to ensure the lights stay on. Eskom, supplies more than 90 percent of the power that earned South Africa its reputation as the most industrialised economy. But lack of adequate financial management and poor billing regime amidst sales decline and mounting has cause it to depend on government bailouts. It is regularly cited by ratings agencies as one of the main threats to South Africa’s creditworthiness and economic growth.

South Africa’s annual inflation rate has fallen to a six-month low in July. Consumer price growth has slowed to 4 percent from 4.5 percent in June, according to Statistics South Africa. The median estimate of 15 economists in a recent Bloomberg survey was 4.3 percent.   Statistics South Africa. Source : Stats SA Inflation has remained at or below the 4.5 percent midpoint of the central bank’s target band every month since December. This is the longest of such streak in more than eight years. The Monetary Policy Committee revised its inflation forecast for the year to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent at its July meeting. The panel cut the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent. A volatile exchange rate and could see a potential return to economic growth in the second quarter. But, this may limit the scope for further easing in 2019.

The Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS) is ongoing. It has after recording an 18 percent increase in space uptake. This has been noted as indicating the vast business opportunities at the exhibition. In a recent exhibition update statement, Zimbabwe Agriculture Society's chief executive and the shows organiser's, Anxious Masuka says that more exhibitors are coming on board for this year's edition.   Anxious Masuka standing beside Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwean President Source : 263chat.com Masuka explains that they had 381 exhibitors compared to 324 last year. They are taking up 62 670 square meters space of compared to 50 740 square meters at the same time last year. Agricultural Show is focused at developing the local agricultural value chains and facilitating national agricultural development, according to Masuka. Gate fees have been pegged at $7 for children and $10 for adults, and gates capacity has been increased b...

Nigeria's Presiden, Muhammadu Buhari says the telecommunications sector has contributed 10 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2019. Buhari the comment at the 2019 Conference of African Telecommunications Regulators on Consumer Affairs (CATCO) taking place in Abuja. He advised the telecommunications industry to play bigger roles in economic growth and development in Africa. On its part, the continental body wants to examine how telecoms regulators can empower the consumers in this era of technological evolution. A follow up on the maiden edition of 2013 where telecoms regulators discussed how to harness regulatory policies to protect telecom consumers in Africa. During the summit, a 17-point resolution was reached on various approaches African regulators can deploy to safeguard and protect telecom consumers. It revealed that during a six-year hiatus, the advancement in technologies has...

Zimbabwe is about to issue new notes and coins to replace the country’s quasi currency, that was introduced three years ago in a failed attempt to counter a crippling shortage of cash and that’s pushed inflation to the highest rate since 2008. According to the Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, the return to a fully fledged local currency will lead to it being exchangeable outside the country’s borders. It will be backed by an undisclosed amount of foreign-exchange reserves, gold and loans. The southern African nation abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009, after a bout of hyperinflation, in favour of a basket of currencies including the U.S. dollar and the rand. In a bid to deal with the subsequent cash shortages it introduced bond notes and RTGS dollar in their electronic form, which aren’t accepted outside the country. Ncube reintroduced the Zimbabwe dollar in June, accompanied by a ban on the use of foreign currencies. This led to a...

More funds for Nigeria as the nations last treasury bills auction was sought for. This has been confirmed by the  Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announcing an over subscription of 112.15 billion naira.  The CBN offered a total of 34.38billion naira worth of T-bills across the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day tenors. The 91-day tenor saw an oversubscription of 10.68 billion naira as it received a total subscription of 15.06 billion naira, compared to the 4.38 billion naira offered. The 182-day tenor saw an under-subscription of N1.41bn as a total subscription of 8.59 billion naira was received, compared to the 10 billion naira offered. The 364-day tenor witnessed the highest interests as it was oversubscribed by 102.88 billion naira. Nigerian dealers raised their secondary-market bids for one-year treasury bills to 14 per cent from 11 per cent last week. The bid offer spread on the paper doubled to 200 basis points as some ...

The Information Communication and Technology (ICT) ministry will soon complete a new tax scheme. This   framework will be used to tax foreign online streaming media services such as YouTube and Netflix. The over-the-top services (OTT) will soon be required to declare the incomes they derive from Kenyan consumers. OTT services include all applications that offer voice, video and messaging services over the internet. Communications Authority director-general Francis Wangusi says online content providers exploit the Kenyan industry yet neither the government nor artistes benefit from them. Wangusi says and I quote, “Many countries especially developed ones have policies that guide these services, and that is where we are heading to as a country.” He adds that technologies that will facilitate taxation of OTT services are available.