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IMF commends Zambia’s progress on supported programme
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AI could replace equivalent of 300 million jobs – report
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AECI Mining Explosives was the highest priced security in the third week of March
Story of the Day
Real Estate Investments Zambia Limited has announced to the market the departure of their Chief Executive officer and the ushering in of Diego Casilli and Dipak Patel to their board. According to the statement released on SENS by the Lusaka Securities and Exchange Commission, the appointments of the duo to the board were effective in January. “Pursuant to section 3.59 of the LuSE Listing Requirements, the Board of Directors of Real Estate Investments Zambia Plc (“REIZ” or the “Company”) wishes to announce the resignation of Mr. Samson Zulu from the board of REIZ effective 31st December 2022”, read the SENS announcement issued on 28th March 2023. “Furthermore, the Board would like to announce the appointments Mr. Diego Casilli and Mr Dipak Patel to the board of REIZ effective 18th January 2023”. Read more
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The International Monetary Fund says Zambia is making “promising progress” on delivering on its commitments under the IMF-supported program. And IMF has urged Zambia’s official creditors to move forward and reach an agreement on debt treatment in line with the financing assurances which they provided in July, 2022. According to a statement by Brand Line Africa Communications and Media Consultant, Tuesday, IMF Director of Communication Julie Kozack said Zambia needed a significant reduction in its debt burden from its external creditors to complement the reforms and preserve the recent growth momentum. Read more: News Diggers
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Elias Mubanga says local financial institutions must lower interest rates on their loans to SMEs. And Mubanga says there is a growing appetite for entrepreneurship in the country. In an interview, Tuesday, Mubanga said Zanaco Bank was responding well to his call for lower interest rates. Read more: News Diggers
The German government has given Zambia €3 million for technical assistance and capacity building to become better prepared to engage in carbon transactions that achieve both meaningful mitigation outcomes and sustainable development co-benefits. The €3 million is a German cooperation programme dubbed “Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPARC6C) that aims to support Zambia in its efforts to contribute global climate protection. Read more: Lusaka Times
Barrick Gold Lumwana Mine has reported a 12% increase in the annual 2022 copper production beating the 2021 production. The 2022 annual copper production at the North Western’s Lumwana Copper Mine stood at 121, 113 metric tons representing a 12% increase in production. According to mineral production figures obtained from the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, the 2022 annual Copper production at Lumwana stood at 121, 113 metric tons from the 108, 790 metric tons recorded in 2021. Read more: Zambian Business Times
Zambia Airways has launched its inaugural regional flight into Harare, Zimbabwe, signaling the re-entry into the international air space. The Airline was re-launched in December, 2021 by the Minister of Transport and Logistics was until now operating domestic flights. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
Currency | Buying | Selling |
---|---|---|
USD | 21.2182 | 21.2625 |
GBP | 26.1132 | 26.1763 |
EUR | 22.9772 | 23.0294 |
ZAR | 1.1672 | 1.1701 |
In International Business News
Artificial intelligence (AI) could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says. It could replace a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. And it could eventually increase the total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7%. Generative AI, able to create content indistinguishable from human work, is “a major advancement”, the report says. Read more: BBC News
The Bank of England is on “heightened” alert for further turmoil in the banking sector, its governor has said. However, Andrew Bailey told MPs the recent problems facing lenders had not caused stress in the UK banking system. Officials have tried to calm investors since Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed, sparking concerns about the stability of other lenders. In Europe, worries over the strength of Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse led to a rushed takeover by rival UBS. Nerves among investors have sparked sharp falls in banking shares around the world. Mr Bailey told MPs on the Treasury Committee that the Bank of England would “go on being vigilant”. He said we were in a period of “very heightened, frankly, tension and alertness”. Read more: BBC News
China’s government says it will assist Ghana’s government in restructuring the country’s US$1.7 billion debt to the Asian behemoth. Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun relayed the commitment to Ghana’s Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, who led a delegation to Beijing to seek debt relief. Ghana is seeking debt relief and restructuring as a condition for the International Monetary Fund’s Board of Governors to accept a US$3 billion extended credit line for the cocoa producer. The US$1.7 billion owed to China is part of the US$5 billion owed to Ghana’s bilateral partners, which includes the Paris Club. Ghana has already completed the restructuring of its internal debt. The IMF has encouraged Ghana’s creditors to move quickly to provide the funding assurances required so that the Bretton Woods institution’s Board of Directors can approve the $3 billion loan to restore economic stability to the country. Read more: Business Insider
The United States is now the biggest supplier of crude oil to the European Union. In December, 18% of the bloc’s crude imports came from America, EU data office Eurostat said Tuesday. That is a big turnaround. Russia was until recently the bloc’s top supplier of crude, accounting for as much as 31% of total imports until the end of January 2022, according to Eurostat. The US, meanwhile, came a distant second, with a maximum 13% share. But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year led to an upheaval in Europe’s energy supplies. EU states slashed their imports of Russia’s energy, and the bloc imposed sanctions on the country’s oil and coal exports. Read more: CNN
Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba surged 15% at the open on Wednesday after the company announced a significant overhaul to split the tech giant into six business groups, in a move that promises to radically reshape the sprawling Chinese e-commerce firm that Jack Ma founded nearly 25 years ago. Each new business unit will be overseen by its own chief executive and board of directors, the company said. Five of the new business groups “will also have the flexibility to raise outside capital and potentially to seek its own IPO,” according to a company statement on Tuesday. Read more: CNBC
Apple on Tuesday introduced Apple Pay Later, which will allow users to split purchases into four payments spread over the course of six weeks. Apple Pay Later users will be able to manage, track and repay their loans in their Apple Wallet, the company said in a release. Individuals can apply for Apple Pay Later loans of between $50 and $1,000 and use them for in-app and online purchases made through merchants that accept Apple Pay. Payments have no interest and no fees. The Mastercard Installments program enables Apple Pay Later, so merchants that already accept Apple Pay will not need to make any changes to implement the software for their customers. Read more: CNBC
In the third week of March 2023, there were twelve company securities that recorded trades of which AECI Mining Explosives was the highest priced security. In comparison to week three of March 2022 we see AECI Mining Explosives was the highest priced security with trades being recorded within thirteen companies. Thursdays’ equity trading was the best performance of the week. Read more
In 88 trades recorded yesterday, 49,171,248 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K245,628,895.98. Share price gains of K0.97 and K0.10 were recorded in CEC Zambia and Standard Chartered Bank Limited respectively. A share price loss of K0.01 was recorded in PUMA and a share price loss of K0.15 was recorded in CEC Africa on the quoted tier. Trading activity was also recorded in Airtel, British American Tobacco Zambia, Chilanga Cement, Pamodzi, Zambia Breweries, Zambeef, ZAMEFA, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 7,761.51 points 5.42% up from its previous close of 7,362.24. The market closed on a capitalization of K74,716,119,708.43 including Shoprite Holdings and K39,933,434,268.43 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
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