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Digital payments in Africa

Digital payments in Africa redefining financial transactions

Tech & Business
  • An infusion of new investments and regulatory transformations is shaping financial interactions and digital payments in Africa.
  • Africa’s digital payments operations produced around $24 billion in revenue in 2020, comprising domestic and cross-border payments.
  • For Africa’s digital transition to run smoothly, a cohesive environment that ensures investment and funding remains necessary.

Human commerce constantly seeks more efficient exchange mediums, and this innovation is currently intensifying. Consequently, how individuals pay for products and services has changed dramatically in the 21st century. Digital payments in Africa are gradually replacing cash, and cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies have lately emerged as substitutes for conventional money concepts.

Africa has kept up with, and in some instances led, technological advancement. An infusion of new investments and regulatory transformations is shaping financial interactions and digital payments in Africa. Cash remains king in Africa. However, research indicates that its dominance may be challenged in the future years as …

China’s crucial role in Africa’s external debt restructuring arrangements

Africa

In the last 20 years, Africa’s external debt has grown fivefold to about $700 billion. According to Chatham House, a policy centre in London, Chinese lenders account for about 12 per cent of that amount. As of November 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank considered 22 low-income African countries to either be in debt distress or facing potential external debt distress.…

Managing currency depreciation to boost African trade finance

Premium

According to SWIFT, African regions with strong integration saw increased use of local currencies and decreased use of hard currencies such as the US dollar. For instance, the use of the West African franc by the eight countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union has overtaken the South African rand and the British West African pound.

This implies that boosting the use of regional currencies will shield the African trade market from adverse global conditions associated with the performance of US dollars. However, further regional coordination remains necessary to build a continental payment system that encourages the use of local correspondent banks and local currencies. These moves can help in managing currency depreciation to boost African trade finance. …

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Zanzibar spices tourism trade with Belgium offering

Countries
  • Zanzibar has entered into a deal with Belgium to attract more tourists to the East African coastal Island.
  • The number of tourist arrivals in Tanzania is projected to increase in 2023. The country saw 62.7 per cent jump in new arrivals between January and July last year.
  • Tanzania received a total of 100,600 tourists from USA in 2022 followed closely by France that was the source of 100,371 holidaymakers.

Zanzibar’s tourism development initiative under its Blue Economy agenda is starting to pay dividend with the isles setting its sights on attracting tourists from Belgium.

Isle’s President Hussein Mwinyi recently met with Belgium’s Ambassador to Tanzania Peter Huyghebaert, and  unveiled ongoing improvement of infrastructure in Zanzibar to improve tourists’ experience.

President Mwinyi cited infrastructure improvements such as airports and roads, access to power and water as well as the construction of new hotels by the private sector.

“We have been working …

Africa must address the impact of a strong US dollar on its economies

Regional Markets

Currently, Africa is over-exposed to the impact of the US Dollar. Thus, African nations must either act individually or together to mitigate these effects. Dollar strength bursts are cyclical. Therefore, there should be enough time to implement efforts before the next one occurs. African governments have recognized the harm done in the previous year and should work round the clock to find a lasting solution.…

Credit to the private sector to spur growth in Tanzania – WB

Banking
  • The increased credit to the private sector is associated with positive growth-focused policies.
  • The data shows that there was robust private credit growth except for the tourism industry which is still coming out of the post-pandemic period.  
  • Overall lending rates dropped slightly from 16.8 percent in August 2021 to 16.1 percent in August last year. 

Tanzania is pushing for private sector growth evident in increased credit to the private sector, according to the World Bank.

In the most recent World Bank report on Tanzania’s Economic Update, the growth rate of credit to the private sector increased from 3.2 percent in August 2021 to 20.7 percent in August 2022 and is expected to grow further this year.

The increased credit to the private sector is associated with positive growth-focused policies designed to support private sector recovery in a post-pandemic and slowing global global growth environment.

The development comes as the country …

Despite international initiatives food inflation worsening in Africa

Industry and Trade

At the close of 2022, between September to December, food prices soared around the world and with no signs of this abating in 2023, countries in Africa will have to move with speed to mitigate a looming food crisis. 

Food inflation is particularly pronounced and severe in low-income and middle-income countries. According to most recent sector reports, up to 94.1% of low-income countries around the world suffer food inflation.

With increasing food prices, the cost of living is increasing, and it is no better in lower-middle-income countries of which 92.9% are contending with food inflation.

Also Read: Starvation, death threaten Horn of Africa stability 

Even the upper-middle-income countries are also facing food inflation with 89% reporting unprecedented double-digit inflation. 

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), maize prices in December 2022 went up by 27% while wheat shot up 13% higher compared to the same period in 2021.

As we

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Ghanaian Cedi depreciation inspires gold for oil policy

Countries

Ghana finds itself in the classic emerging market trap. This comes from owing too much in someone else’s currency when the global economic tide turns. One ought not to read too much into an emerging economy getting creative with money or to confuse the confiscation of private assets with a more conventional process of fiscal retrenchment that would gain IMF approval. If the plan succeeds, Ghana may have saved itself from an economic meltdown, especially in a period widely considered as economic turmoil, per the World Bank’s analysis of the 2023 economy.…

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Africa’s debt sustainability struggles amid currency vulnerability

Investing

Over the past decade, African countries have accumulated external debt at a faster pace. The countries have capitalized on abundant, low-cost international credit for fiscal and balance-of-payments funding to help drive development plans.

Africa’s total external debt, accrued by both the private and public sectors, owed to foreign lenders, has surpassed $1 trillion. The related annual debt servicing costs broke through the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2021.…

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Mozambique: Central Bank maintains monetary policy interest rate

Industry and Trade
  • The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mozambique (CPMO) has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 17.25 per cent.
  • This decision was based on the prevalence of high risks and uncertainties surrounding inflation forecasts.
  • Despite the uncertainties and risks, the CPMO remains optimistic that inflation will continue to fall in the medium term.  

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mozambique (CPMO), meeting in Maputo on Wednesday, decided to keep its benchmark interest rate, the Monetary Policy Interest Rate (MIMO), unchanged at 17.25 per cent. This is the rate used by the central bank in its interventions on the interbank money market to regulate liquidity. The rate rose from 15.25 to 17.25 per cent last September.

In a press statement, the CPMO said the decision not to alter interest rates was due “to the prevalence of the high risks and uncertainties underlying the forecasts for …