S.African court allows mobile rate cuts for six months

An MTN outlet South Africa's telecoms regulator can go ahead with planned cuts to mobile interconnection rates, a court ruled on Monday, throwing out a petition by the two biggest operators to prevent reductions scheduled for April 1. Vodacom and MTN had asked a Johannesburg High Court to stop the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) from forcing the operators to reduce the fees they charge one another to connect calls.Judge...

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Nigerian naira steady on oil companies dollar sales

Nigeria's naira currency held steady against the dollar on the interbank market on Monday, supported by sales of the U.S. currency by two major energy companies.The local unit closed at 164.95 to the dollar, the same level it closed at on Friday.The Nigerian unit of ExxonMobil sold $50 million, while Royal Dutch Shell sold an undisclosed amount, boosting dollar liquidity and helping to prop the local currency.Traders said there was demand for the dollar from investors repatriating dividends, but the dollar sales by the oil companies provided support...

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Nigeria's finance minister defends economy, says "don't talk it down"

Nigeria's finmin, Okonjo-Iweala Nigeria has a strong, buoyant economy receiving billions of dollars of foreign and domestic direct investment in power, petrochemicals, agriculture and consumer goods, but it needs to grow faster to reduce poverty, its finance minister said. In a spirited response to what she called a trend of "talking down on Nigeria", Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was not concerned about short-term outflows of portfolio investment...

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Drugmaker GSK to invest $200 mln in African factories, R&D

GSK office Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline plans to invest up to 130 million pounds ($216 million) in Africa over the next five years as it bets on the importance of the continent in driving long-term demand for medicine. The decision reflects the pharmaceutical industry's growing interest in Africa, given improved economic growth and rising demand for treatments against chronic diseases that are becoming more common among urban middle classes.France's...

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Nigerian bonds seen rising on impact of liquidity tightening

CBN ag Gov, alade Yields on Nigerian bonds are expected inch up slightly toward 14 percent next week as demand for the debt paper falls due to the impact of monetary tightening by the central bank.The central bank kept interest rates on hold for the 15th time in a row on Tuesday but hiked its cash reserves requirement on private sector deposits by 300 basis points to 15 percent.Traders said they expected fresh tightening, while the level of liquidity...

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Safaricom, Bharti get conditional approval to buy Kenyan rival

Kenya's biggest telecom firm, Safaricom Kenya's telecoms regulator granted conditional approval to the country's biggest telecom companies, Safaricom and the local unit of Bharti Airtel, to buy No. 3 network Yu.Safaricom, which is 40 percent owned by Vodafone, wants to acquire Yu's infrastructure such as base stations to help improve the quality of its network. Airtel aims to acquire the subscriber base that Yu has built up since entering the...

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Nigerian interbank rate eases on matured T-bills

CBN acting Governor, Alade Nigerian interbank lending rates eased marginally to an average of 10.33 percent on Friday from 10.41 percent last week, driven by increased liquidity from the repayment of matured treasury bills, dealers said.The cash balance that lenders hold at the central bank opened at 600.36 billion naira ($3.64 billion) surplus on Friday, compared with 527.21 billion naira last week, boosted by the repayment of matured treasury...

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Nigeria's Oando sets end-April deadline for ConocoPhillips asset acquisition

Oando CEO, Tinubu Nigerian energy company Oando has said it now expects to complete its acquisition of ConocoPhillips' assets in Nigeria by the end of April, pushing back by one month the target deadline to wrap up negotiations that began more than a year ago.Oando said in a statement that the earlier deadline of the end of March was no longer realistic because the oil minister had still not approved the acquisition.The...

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More fast food chains seek entry to Nigeria market

AKFC product When investment banker Ebele Enunwa moved to Nigeria’s oil industry hub of Port Harcourt more than a decade ago, he was distraught by a lack of places he wanted to eat. To tackle the problem, he raised $1 million from banks and friends to open a chain of fast-food outlets called Kilimanjaro -- named after Africa’s highest peak -- in 2004. Now, competitors including Yum! Brands Inc, Domino’s Pizza Inc and Johnny Rockets International...

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