Story of the Day
Zambia officially began its journey to becoming a key player in the new global electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem this week as President Hakainde Hichilema launched the Enterprise nickel mine in Kalumbila. Once up and running, First Quantum Minerals’ mine will be the largest producer of the strategic metal in Africa. Nickel, like lithium, cobalt, and copper, is an essential component in the batteries essential for the new era of ‘green’ vehicles. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Intelligent Technologies
China invited Zambia’s private creditors to discuss the nation’s debt later this month after official creditors agreed to a restructuring of its debt, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Du Xiaohui said on Thursday. Zambia’s creditors have pledged to negotiate a restructuring of the country’s debts in a move welcomed by International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva as “clearing the way” for a $1.4 billion fund programme. Read more: CNBC
Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Plc has launched agency banking to reach out to the unbanked and underserved communities through digital platforms, while interest rates on mortgages have been dropped to 16 percent from 24.5 percent effective August 15 for all new loans. Similarly, personal loans interest rates have been dropped to 23 percent from 29 percent with an offering of a maximum of K450,000 with tenor of up to 60 months. Standard Chartered Bank Zambia chief executive officer Sonny Zulu said at a press briefing yesterday that the bank will be rolling out agency banking by the end of this month and will establish about 100 centres across the country in the first phase and up to 300 in the second phase. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Over 6,000 farmers have benefited from the AgriPay Solution, a digital platform operated by Zanaco Bank Plc, which provides various agricultural services, in the past two years. AgriPay aims to meet various needs of agricultural value chain actors and create an enabling ecosystem to support smallholder farmers’ growth in Zambia. Zanaco head of digital sales Mathew Tembo said the product is targeted at small-scale farmers to help them access financial services and information concerning farming such as weather and marketing. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Oil Marketing Companies Association of Zambia (OMCAZ) president Dr Kafula Mubanga says monthly fuel price reviews have helped oil marketing companies avoid making losses. In an interview, Dr Mubanga said the monthly reviews helped oil marketing companies to plan properly and take advantage of reduced prices on the international market. Read more: News Diggers
Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Mizuuchi Ryuta says his country, together with the US, UK and France pushed very hard to ensure that all of Zambia’s creditors came on board in the debt restructuring process. Read more: News Diggers
International Business and Finance
President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has urged European nations to pay reparations to Africa for damage wrought by the historic slave trade. “The effects of the Slave Trade have been devastating to the African continent and to the African Diaspora, with the entire period of slavery stifling Africa’s economic, cultural and psychological progress. “It is now time to revive and intensify the discussions about reparations for Africa. Indeed, the time is long overdue,” the president told a summit on the theme in Accra. Read more: African Business
TICAD – the Tokyo International Conference on African Development – is the premier diplomatic and economic forum for Japanese engagement with the African continent. The regular event, hosted by the Japanese government alongside the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank and African Union Commission, has set the agenda in Japan-Africa relations since 1993. This year’s instalment – the first since the Covid-19 pandemic and the first to be held in Africa since Kenya in 2016 – will be held in Tunisia on August 27 and 28. The 2019 instalment in Yokohama, Japan, was visited by over 10,000 people, including 42 African leaders from 53 African countries. Read more: African Business
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for oil and gas companies to face special taxes. His comments come as surging energy prices sparked by the war in Ukraine push industry profits to new highs. Mr Guterres said it was “immoral” for firms to be profiting from the crisis. Together, four of the biggest energy firms – Exxon, Chevron, Shell and TotalEnergies – earned nearly $51bn in the most recent quarter – almost double what they made in the same period last year. “This grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only common home,” Mr Guterres said. “I urge all governments to tax these excessive profits, and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.” Read more: BBC News
The Bank of England has warned the UK will fall into recession as it raised interest rates by the most in 27 years. The economy is forecast to shrink in the last three months of this year and keep shrinking until the end of 2023. Interest rates rose to 1.75% as the Bank battles to stem soaring prices, with inflation now set to hit over 13%. Governor Andrew Bailey said he knew the cost of living squeeze was difficult but if it didn’t raise interest rates it would get “even worse”. The main reason for high inflation and low growth is soaring energy bills, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more: BBC News
Alibaba just posted flat revenue growth for the first time since becoming a public company, but investors don’t seem to mind. Shares of the Chinese tech and e-commerce giant jumped more than 6% in premarket trading in New York on Thursday. Its stock in Hong Kong had earlier closed up 5.2%. The pop came despite the company reporting revenue of nearly 205.6 billion yuan (about $30.4 billion) in the quarter ended June, roughly in line with what it recorded the same time last year. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report
In 71 trades recorded yesterday, 463,455 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K618,920. A share price gain was recorded in Zambeef of K0.05. Trading activity was also recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Madison Financial Services, Real Estate Investments Zambia, Standard Chartered Zambia, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,913.00 points, 0.05% up from its previous close of 6,909.55 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K71,022,750,372 including Shoprite Holdings and K36,240,064,932 excluding Shoprite Holdings.