Browsing: Africa investments

African Risk

Yield-chasing investors have poured money into Africa, but an emerging, recent challenge for the continent is that in a now higher interest rate environment, investors don’t need to come to Africa to find higher returns.

Even US treasuries are now yielding far more attractive yields than just a month ago: three-month government bonds offer 5.32 per cent, while 2-year bonds offer a yield above five per cent. Yields have risen in part in response to Fitch’s recent downgrade of the US from AAA to AA+, echoing S&P’s move in 2011.
African bond issuers, spooked by the high-interest rate environment and refusing to issue bonds above the psychological barrier of double-digit yields for Sub-Saharan African bonds, continue to wait it out on the sidelines.…

An apartment complex. In East Africa, the luxury housing market as well as office supply could have reached saturation but there is more that needs to be done to uplift all people by providing quality and affordable housing. www.theexchange.africa

One of the features that make the property unique as an investment is that it has a high unit value in comparison to other investments.

A nominal amount like ZWL$1,000.00 can buy an individual investor shares of a publicly listed company on the ZSE and the same amount in US dollars can purchase a decent number of shares through an offshore brokerage account.

This is not usually the case with real estate. There is very little an individual investor can do with ZWL$1,000.00 in terms of direct property investment, at least in the conventional sense.

Even with access to mortgage finance, an investor will also tend to be limited by their credit standing in terms of the funds that they can deploy into property investments.…

Capitec Founder Michiel le Roux. www.theexchange.africa

These prospective customer circumstances have provided the proverbial “ace” which Capitec has played very successfully during its 21 years of existence.

Capitec’s success is attributable largely to the leadership of one man Stassen and the support of his team. Stassen for his part is not a traditional banker, he was during his time at the helm of the bank an even more unconventional CEO.

In his own words, he is non-hierarchical, consultative, and often informal in his approach. By his own admission, he is not a natural reader but said that he learns a lot from observation… Typically the average chief executive is said to read at least 52 books a year… but then Stassen was not an average CEO.…

“Nobody eats GDP” says African Development Bank President

Africa’s economies are growing strongly, but growth alone cannot meet the needs of the continent’s poorest citizens, because “nobody eats GDP,” said Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank during the 2020 African Economic Outlook.

According to the 2020 African Economic Outlook, Africa’s economies are growing well, higher than the global average. The report anticipated a steady rise in growth in Africa from 3.4% in 2019 to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021.

According to the report, these figures do not give all the details. Because across the continent, the poor are not seeing the benefits of strong growth. Comparatively, few African countries posted substantial declines in extreme poverty and inequality, which remain higher compared to other regions in the world.

The report also revealed only 18 of 48 African countries with data, had inclusive growth.

Also Read: African Development Bank approves $22m to Egypt

“Growth must …

UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020

The UK-Africa Investment Summit held on Monday saw attendance from dignitaries and delegates from 16 African countries, including President El Sisi of Egypt and Boris Johnson British Prime Minister.

During his opening speech, Prime Minister Johnson said “Look around the world today and you will swiftly see that the UK is not only the obvious partner of choice, we’re also very much the partner of today, of tomorrow and decades to come,”

He referred to Africa as a booming continent with “staggering levels of growth”

Also Read: Seven African climate-resilient projects get ACCF funding

This was the first UK-Africa Investment Summit hosted by the UK Government. It was attended by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, the international development secretary, Alok Sharma and Prince Harry.

A plenary panel discussion on ‘Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure – Unlocking the City of London and UK financial services for growth in Africa’ was discussed by …

Africa expects business to flourish with $3 trillion GDP - The Exchange

There has never been a better time to invest in Africa, says South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He said the continent’s governments are committed to creating the necessary enabling environment for business to flourish. Calling on the investor community to “harness the climate of reform” sweeping the continent and “take advantage of its momentum,” he said: “there has never been a better time to invest in Africa”.

Ramaphosa was speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, where other speakers included former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area will “bring together into a single market 54 nations of some 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of over $3 trillion,” Ramaphosa said.

He compared its significance for Africa to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty which created “a new era of European cooperation and integration”. This follows the enabling African Continental Free Trade

Top hospitality investment markets in Africa

Bottom and top hospitality investment markets in Africa as shared by Wayne Troughton of HTI Consulting.

According to Troughton, the hospitality sector continues to attract investments from both international and African investors.

“We are tracking investment from structured funds, predominantly from Europe and the Middle East; an increasing percentage of High Net Worth Individuals from Europe, Middle East, and Africa itself), Owner-operators that invest from Europe, Africa and the USA), as well as Family Offices Middle East, the UK, Europe, and SA.”

In East Africa the top hospitality investments markets are Kampala, Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam with Nairobi and Kigali ranked at the bottom. Nairobi ranked at the bottom for oversupply while Kigali due to oversupply and limited demand.

Kampala

Troughton said Kampala is one of the next hubs for investments due to its limited branded supply and with the oil prices entering a recovery period; it …