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South Africa records 4.9% economic growth after 6.4% contraction in 2020

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2022

Fresh data from South Africa shows the country’s economy grew by 4.9% in the 2021 calendar year after contracting by 6.4% in 2020.

Statistics South Africa said gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.2% quarter on quarter in the last three months of 2021 following a contraction of 1.7% in the third quarter.

According to the agency, the expansion in the final quarter of 2021 was driven by a recovery in agriculture and manufacturing.

[ICYMI] A brief look at how the South African #economy performed in 2021.

Read more on the latest #GDP figures here: https://t.co/Ldd9EbiyRP #StatsSA pic.twitter.com/ZReHdnaLK5

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) March 9, 2022

Agriculture expanded by 12.2% quarter on quarter, manufacturing by 2.8% and retail trade sales by 2.9%. But mining contracted by 3.1%, construction by 2.2% and finance by 0.8%.

The South African economy has struggled to gain traction despite promises of sweeping reforms made by President Cyril Ramaphosa after he took office in 2018, with persistent electricity cuts choking growth, among other woes.

2021 recorded an increase compared to a 6.4% contraction in GDP in 2020 when the country entered the pandemic as it was already in recession.

These economic difficulties are reflected in the record unemployment rates recorded in 2021: from 34.9% in October, it reached up to 65% among young people, according to the latest official statistics.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted Ramaphosa’s efforts and pressure has built for his government to take corrective action after the unemployment rate hit a record high of nearly 35% last year.

The finance ministry expects economic growth of 2.1% this year, a rate officials and economists have said is far below the level required to make a meaningful dent in unemployment and poverty.

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Ghana’s finance minister anticipates debt restructuring MoU with lenders

Published

13 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ghana’s Finance Minister has announced that the country’s two main creditors will send him a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a restructuring deal in May, signifying a major progress in the country’s debt reform.

Once the MoU is signed, it will make public the deal that was made in January to restructure $5.4 billion in loans with its official creditors, such as China and France.

The restructuring is a big step toward Ghana getting rid of its debt as it works to get out of the worst economic crisis in a generation. It should also allow the country to get more money from its $3 billion IMF program.

Mohammed Amin Adam said he was sure the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank would work together at the Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. In June, the Monetary Fund’s executive board will agree to review its staff-level deal.

From 2023 to 2028, Ghana’s national debt to gross domestic product level was supposed to go down by 15%. This guess says that the number will have gone down every year for six years, ending at 69.96% in 2028.

Ghana didn’t pay back most of its foreign loans in December 2022 because it became too expensive to do so. But now it needs to work out a deal with private holders of about $13 billion in foreign bonds. It has also changed most of its domestic debt.

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Nigeria’s Access Bank says its N365bn capital raise to be fully digital

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Access Holdings, which is the parent company of Nigeria’s Access Bank, has revealed that its N365bn rights issue will be done entirely digitally.

In a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the holding company said the bank wanted to raise N365bn through a rights issue to strengthen its capital base, drive growth, and be ready to take advantage of new possibilities in the financial sector.

The bank also planned to raise $1.5bn in capital through the sale of stock, quasi-equity, and debt. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the head of the Holdco, told reporters at the second Annual General Meeting that digital technology would play an interesting role in the bank’s efforts to raise capital.

He said, “If you remember the 2004 capital raising, we went around Nigeria. It led to the democratisation of our capital market, others followed suit. The number of shareholders of banks and the capital market increased as a result of that effort.

“This time around, we have digital technology that we are going to deploy fully. There have been public offers that have leveraged digital technology but using Access Bank’s capacity, the NGX’s digital capacity, we are going to do some interesting things. This rights issue, we have shareholders and each of them would be able to make that investment decision just by touching their phones. That way, the issue of dilution and concerns that they may have about participation would be dealt with.”

Aig-Imoukhuede told shareholders about the time in 2004 when the banking group raised money and stressed that they were up to the job.

He said, “We’re moving on to the rights issue resolution. At this junction, I think we’ll take one minute to crave your indulgence as I appreciate you all for the support you have given our predecessor company, Access Bank, and of course now Access Holdings.

“We have sought to raise capital. The amount that we mention today is high and significant and the capital-raising effort that we are pursuing is a significant step into the future. I would like to remind shareholders that between 2004 and 2007, our team when I was CEO raised $2bn of common equity capital. Therefore, come 2024, Access Bank is much older, much wiser, much stronger, larger and significantly respected by the capital market, really raising over N300bn is not much of a challenge.”

There are more than 700 branches and service sites for Access Bank on three continents. The company does business in 20 countries and has more than 65 million users. Over 500,000 people save money at FTB, and more than 42,000 people take money from them. More than 40% of these people are women.