Musings From Abroad

Egypt: Bond prices rise following announcement of $5 billion Saudi investment

Published

2 months ago

September 19, 2024

Bond prices rose on Thursday after Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, declared that a $5 billion Saudi investment in Egypt was separate from money the Gulf state had deposited in the nation’s central bank.

Sovereign dollar bonds issued by the nation surged to record two-year highs. According to Tradeweb statistics, the 2059 maturity gained the most, increasing 1.35 cents to bid at 77.60 cents on the dollar by 1309 GMT.

Bidding for near-term maturities reached a maximum of 99.52 cents.

“The $5 billion investments will be in projects that will be decided mutually later in important economic sectors,” Madbouly said.

Tuesday saw a significant increase in Egypt’s bond market, pushing the country’s assets to levels last seen in early 2022. This came a day after the Egyptian cabinet announced that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (PIF) to invest $5 billion in Egypt in a “first stage” of the plan.

The Central Bank of Egypt has medium long-term deposits worth $5.3 billion from Saudi Arabia, according to data from the bank. Additionally, it made a $5 billion short-term deposit in 2022; it is thought that this money has since been rolled over.

In an attempt to recover from a protracted economic crisis that has resulted in record inflation, a mounting debt load, and severe currency devaluations over the last two years, Egypt has been actively seeking large-scale investments.

The North African country received a boost earlier this year when it agreed to develop a desirable portion of the Mediterranean coast with the United Arab Emirates under the terms of the Ras El Hekma contract and obtained billions of dollars in finance from foreign lenders.

Large-scale investments are currently being made in five Red Sea Coast locations by Cairo, one of which is Ras Banas, a 30-kilometer (19-mile) peninsula located in the extreme south of Egypt across from Saudi Arabia.

It is one of the few remaining undeveloped coastal areas in the nation of North Africa.

“We allocated five large areas on the Red Sea coast, we aim to develop these areas as the developmental centres established like in the Ras El Hekma deal,” he said.

Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

3 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.