African briefs
SA investigates US$60 million SAP contract
South Africa’s anti-corruption agency is investigating a 671 million rand (US$60 million) government contract with German software firm SAP, which has admitted misconduct in separate deals involving friends of ousted president Jacob Zuma.
The public protector, an independent watchdog mandated by the constitution, said it had received an anonymous letter alleging due process was not followed in the award of a contract to SAP in 2016 to provide IT and support services to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
-Nampa/Reuters
Ghana central bank cuts policy rate to 18%
Ghana’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% on Monday, saying its medium-term inflation target was on course, Governor Ernest Addison told a news conference in the capital Accra.
Ghana is in its final year of a US$918 million credit deal with the International Monetary Fund to narrow deficit, debt and inflation. Monday’s cut adds to 750 basis points by the regulator in the past year to also foster growth.
-Nampa/Reuters
Congo's 2017 mining revenue up 36% while oil revenue doubles
Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2017 mining sector revenue rose 35.6% to US$822.2 million while revenue from the oil and gas sector jumped by 103% to US$203.9 million, finance ministry data showed.
Mining revenue in the fourth quarter more than doubled helped by higher prices for key exports such as copper and cobalt, data in a quarterly report seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
-Nampa/Reuters
Interest rate cut on cards in SA
Thanks to Moody's stable outlook for SA, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) will likely reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points today. This is the conclusion of Nedbank's Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division after it analysed its latest Interest Rate Barometer.
A 25 basis points cut would lower the repo rate, the rate at which banks borrow money from the SARB, to 6.5% and the prime lending rate to consumers to 10%.
-Fin24
Comoros passport sales scheme was unlawful -report
A programme to sell Comoros Islands citizenship to fund development resulted in thousands of passports being sold outside official channels via “mafia” networks and up to US$100 million of revenues went missing, according to a report by the small Indian Ocean state’s parliament.
The report, produced by a parliamentary commission set up in June 2017 to investigate the citizenship programme, also said former presidents Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi and Ikililou Dhoinine, who were in power when the alleged abuses took place, were “suspected of the embezzlement of public funds.”
The programme was flawed from its inception and the current Comoros government should seek international help to recover the missing funds and take officials involved to court, the report concluded.
-Nampa/Reuters
South Africa’s anti-corruption agency is investigating a 671 million rand (US$60 million) government contract with German software firm SAP, which has admitted misconduct in separate deals involving friends of ousted president Jacob Zuma.
The public protector, an independent watchdog mandated by the constitution, said it had received an anonymous letter alleging due process was not followed in the award of a contract to SAP in 2016 to provide IT and support services to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
-Nampa/Reuters
Ghana central bank cuts policy rate to 18%
Ghana’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% on Monday, saying its medium-term inflation target was on course, Governor Ernest Addison told a news conference in the capital Accra.
Ghana is in its final year of a US$918 million credit deal with the International Monetary Fund to narrow deficit, debt and inflation. Monday’s cut adds to 750 basis points by the regulator in the past year to also foster growth.
-Nampa/Reuters
Congo's 2017 mining revenue up 36% while oil revenue doubles
Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2017 mining sector revenue rose 35.6% to US$822.2 million while revenue from the oil and gas sector jumped by 103% to US$203.9 million, finance ministry data showed.
Mining revenue in the fourth quarter more than doubled helped by higher prices for key exports such as copper and cobalt, data in a quarterly report seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
-Nampa/Reuters
Interest rate cut on cards in SA
Thanks to Moody's stable outlook for SA, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) will likely reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points today. This is the conclusion of Nedbank's Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division after it analysed its latest Interest Rate Barometer.
A 25 basis points cut would lower the repo rate, the rate at which banks borrow money from the SARB, to 6.5% and the prime lending rate to consumers to 10%.
-Fin24
Comoros passport sales scheme was unlawful -report
A programme to sell Comoros Islands citizenship to fund development resulted in thousands of passports being sold outside official channels via “mafia” networks and up to US$100 million of revenues went missing, according to a report by the small Indian Ocean state’s parliament.
The report, produced by a parliamentary commission set up in June 2017 to investigate the citizenship programme, also said former presidents Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi and Ikililou Dhoinine, who were in power when the alleged abuses took place, were “suspected of the embezzlement of public funds.”
The programme was flawed from its inception and the current Comoros government should seek international help to recover the missing funds and take officials involved to court, the report concluded.
-Nampa/Reuters
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