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Author: Laurence Sithole
This shortage of hard currency implies that those businesses that rely on foreign exchange have often had to source it from the parallel market, where it is easily available relative to the formal market.
To mitigate the inflationary pressures caused by businesses looking for foreign exchange on the parallel market and passing on the effect of higher exchange rates to consumers in the form of higher prices, the central bank instituted the foreign currency auction system, which allocates foreign exchange to importers.
This foreign exchange shortage affects all businesses across the economic spectrum and is not limited to retailers only. Manufacturing companies import raw materials and spares. They have recently experienced viability challenges from charging prices in local currency.…
Right across the financial divide, the company reported strongly. Even more remarkable and unprecedented, the Nigerian cement company declared a dividend of N$ 2.61, which was paid instantly during the shareholders’ meeting. This is not something that often happens, if at all.
Normally a company declares a dividend, and then what follows is a process where shareholders are notified by either their stockbrokers, the company itself or the press of the dividend on offer and which shareholders are eligible for the payout, usually those shareholders who are on the company’s record on or before a specific date. This was not the case at the BUA Cement Limited shareholder’s meeting.
The dividend was declared during the meeting and was paid to shareholders before they left the auditorium where they were gathered.…
Oliver Chidawu had been the founding shareholder of an outfit called Heritage Investment Bank, and Douglas Munatsi was the founder of First Merchant Bank. Chidawu, in that period, also acquired a substantial portfolio of shares of companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. His portfolio comprised furniture retail and manufacturing companies as well as the manufacture and distribution of agricultural inputs.
In the 2000s, Chidawu was at his zenith. He had a portfolio of thriving businesses and had board seats on several Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed companies like ABC Holdings Limited, Zimplow Limited, and Bindura Nickel Corporation.
Things started to go badly in the 2010s. Chidawu had made an unsuccessful expansion of his construction outfit to the United Kingdom. A difficult business environment coupled with expensive and unsustainable loans saw the businessman lose some of his prized interests.…
Among Zimbabweans, there is a clear preference for the use of the United States dollar over the local currency. This is to the extent that there are some government services which cannot be accessed without United States dollars.
There are also some basic household commodities and goods that one will need to pay for using hard currency and will not be able to purchase if they have the local currency. Following on the issue of the currency crisis is the fact that exporters are already heavily burdened with operating costs in United States dollars.
Regardless of whether it is an exporter or partial exporter, 40 per cent of all export proceeds generated by Zimbabwean-based exporters must be surrendered to the central bank. This is how the central bank has been funding its auction system to allocate foreign exchange to importers.
To be fair, the surrender requirements are not uniformly or …
- Banking industry in South Africa staged a strong come back in 2021 in report by PWC.
- Banks enjoyed supportive credit conditions in the economy of South Africa.
- Banking industry is widely seen as a proxy of the general economy in South Africa
- South African economy has returned to pre-pandemic levels as evidenced by the financial performance of banks according to PWC
The banking industry in South Africa is in for good times according to a report by PWC. The banking industry sector analysis and report by the global management consulting firm published in March 2022 reports that the major South African banks delivered strong financial performance against what PWC described as “supportive conditions”.
The banking industry had combined headline earnings of ZAR 86.8 billion which represented a 99% increase from 2020 financial year levels. Banks had a combined return on equity (ROE) of 15.9% compared to 8.3% achieved in 2020, …