Ghana central bank cuts policy rate to 17 pct

Ghana’s central bank has slashed its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 17 percent on Monday, saying the West African country was on track to meet its medium-term inflation target as the economy stabilised.
Ghana, Nigeria's neighbour is in its final year of a $918 million credit deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to narrow its deficit and reduce debt and inflation and has now lowered the rate by 850 basis points over the past year.
Speaking in the capital Accra, Central Bank Governor Ernest Addison projected that inflation would fall to the bank’s target of eight percent by the end of this year or early 2019.
“There is evidence to show that some stabilisation and consolidation, especially with inflation and exchange rates expectations, are taking hold,” he told reporters.
Annual inflation fell to 9.6 percent in April from 10.4 percent the month before.
The West African country’s public debt declined from 69.8 of gross domestic product at the end of 2017 to 60 percent at the end of February, Addison said.

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Nigeria's economic growth slows for first time since end of recession

Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has thrown its weight behind former President Olusegun Obasanjo's efforts to unseat President Mohammadu Buhari through a coalition of Political parties.
The two leaders met in Akure on Monday.
The leader of the group, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, said the Yoruba group was in support of the ex-President’s moves to achieve peaceful and virile Nigeria.
“We are in full support of all the letters written by Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation. We are dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country. The country is not being run properly.
He commended Obasanjo for his struggle to make Nigeria a better place, assuring him of the support of Afenifere to join hands with him in the struggle
Fasoranti said, “We want to encourage you in your struggle to make Nigeria the best. You are fearless and that is one of the traits of a good leader
“We have been watching you; and your dreams of a better Nigeria shall be realised.
“Nigerians are at a crossroads; we are tired of the killings, kidnapping going on across the country and the President is mute about it.
“We are in full support of all the letters written by Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation. We are dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country. The country is not being run properly.
“Nothing is being done properly in this country presently. Look at the killings in the North. The President is very silent about it.
“We are all Nigerians. If he can keep silence about the killing of his people, that is bad enough.”
The Afenifere leader declared that the group was in total support of the coalition of political parties to forge an alliance against President Muhammadu Buhari in the next general election.
“It will be the joy of everybody to present a formidable team to confront the evil government that is there now,” Fasoranti stated.

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AfDB approves $100 mln loan for Nigeria's Indorama Eleme

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $100 million loan for Nigeria’s Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals aimed at helping it boost fertilizer production, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.
The company, a unit of Singapore-based petrochemical producer Indorama, is seeking to double annual output of urea fertilizer from 1.4 million tonnes to 2.8 million tonnes, the statement said.
Once a net importer of fertilizer, Nigerian production has grown in recent years. In 2017, it exported around 700,000 tonnes of urea to markets in West African as well as North and South America.
Indorama Fertilizer’s increased output will target the export market but also seek to boost domestic supply to drive down prices.
Nigerian farmers still use much less fertilizer than their global and African peers due to high costs, leading to low crop yields that forced the West African nation to spend around $6 billion on food imports annually.
The AfDB financed the building of an Indorama Fertilizer plant via a previous loan in 2013. It went online in 2016.

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Ethiopian Airlines moves to take over African market in a new deal

Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise plans to establish half a dozen international offshoots before the end of the year as Africa’s biggest carrier steps up efforts to dominate markets across the continent.
Ethiopian will take equity stakes in new operators in Zambia, Chad, Mozambique, and Gambia while helping to manage existing carriers in Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chief Executive Officer Tewolde GebreMariam said in an interview.
The company, which has turned Addis Ababa into Africa’s equivalent of the Persian Gulf hubs, linking almost 70 global cities with close to 60 across the continent, already owns stakes in Malawi Airlines in the south and Togo-based Asky Airlines in the west. 

The new initiatives are aimed at consolidating its lead over rivals Kenya Airways Plc and state-owned South African Airways.
Ethiopia’s change of prime minister last month after almost three years of unrest in the Oromia and Amhara regions won’t impact the carrier, Tewolde said by phone, with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front “definitely” continuing to back its expansionist strategy.
The airline plans to buy new regional jets in the next month or so, having narrowed its choice to Bombardier Inc.’s C Series and Embraer SA’s E2-family E195. Boeing Co.’s 737 Max 7 is now out of the running for the contract, which could feature 10 firm orders and the same number of options, the CEO said. 

There are no more pressing fleet requirements, though the carrier could decide to add more Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Airbus SE A350s, he said.
Ethiopian Airlines agreed in January to take a 45 percent stake in the new Zambia Airways, with flights likely to start in October, and has signed an outline accord to establish new national carrier Chad Airlines with a 49 percent holding, Tewolde said. The company will own all of the planned Ethiopia Mozambique Airlines and 49 percent of Guinea Airlines, he said.
Beyond the direct investments, the group has a management contract to run Ceiba Intercontinental in Equatorial Guinea and a technical agreement with Congo Airways in the DRC. An initiative in Uganda is moving “very slowly” and there is no prospect of involvement with Arik Air in Nigeria -- Africa’s most populous nation -- which has been taken over by the government’s debt-recovery agency, the CEO said.
A government accord with Djibouti could have implications for airlines but the focus is more on improving port access for landlocked Ethiopia, he said.
Completing the African expansion are direct routes operated by Ethiopian Airlines from Ivory Coast, with a service from Abidjan to Newark in New Jersey commencing this month to be followed by flights to Washington in December. Ethiopian will also start services to Chicago, Geneva and Barcelona next month from its Addis Ababa base, joined in the second half by Istanbul, Moscow, Manchester in northern England and Jakarta in Indonesia.

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Nigerian annual inflation falls to more than two year low in April

Nigeria's annual inflation rate moderated to 12.48 percent in April, its lowest level in more than two years and its 15th straight monthly decline, latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown on Tuesday.
The consumer inflation index fell from 13.34 percent in March. A separate food price index showed inflation at 14.80 percent in April, compared with 16.08 percent in March.
Food inflation has been in double figures for nearly three years but has sustained a downward decline for the past six months.
The statistics office said the highest increases were recorded in potatoes, yam, and other tubers, as well as bread and cereals, plus oil and fats.
The central bank’s monetary policy committee is due to meet later this month to set its main interest rate. It held the rate at 14 percent in April in an attempt to curb inflation, especially in food prices.
It has kept rates tight for more than a year to support the naira and attract foreign investors into the debt market.

Analysts at United capital said the recent deceleration in headline inflation would be sustained going forward, noting that their assertion is supported by a continued pullback in food inflation, thanks to base effects from 2017 and continued stability in the FX market. 

They noted that the feedback effect from the herdsmen killings in Benue State, Taraba State and environ, is disturbing, especially on food inflation. 

"To this end, we highlight the marginal uptick in m/m food inflation (to 0.91 percent in Apr-18) for a second consecutive month, after touching 0.85 percent in Feb-18."

Nevertheless, the analysts projected May 2018 inflation rate to decelerate faster, to 11.3 percent (below the CBN’s target of 12.0 percent), with m/m inflation rate anticipated to steady at 0.82 percent m/m. 

"At 12.5 percent, Nigeria’s real interest rate (MPR less headline inflation) improved to 1.5 percent from 0.7 percent in March 2018, the first time in 2 years of negative real interest rate. While this indicates a further repricing in the yield environment, recent aggressive liquidity mop-up exercise by the CBN may off-set sharp moderation in yields," concluded United Capital analysts.

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