Story of the Day
World Vision Zambia, Zanaco Bank and CFAO Motors have signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will see the three organisations work together to support girls rescued from child marriage or facing such risks. The Strong Girls, Strong Zambia campaign is a World Vision Zambia (WVZ) initiative to mobilise local resources and implement community activities in Pemba District from 2022 to 2025. The goal of the campaign is to reach and empower 15,000 girls retrieved from child marriages and those at risk to live safer, healthier, more productive lives. The campaign will run from October 2022 to September 2025. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Zambia’s central bank on Tuesday launched a “Go Cashless” campaign aimed at encouraging people to adopt digital means of accessing and using financial services in a safe and secure manner. Denny Kalyalya, the Governor of the Bank of Zambia (BoZ), said during the launch that the use of digital financial services will translate into tangible improvements in the welfare of consumers and contribution to economic growth. “Over the last two decades, financial inclusion has been a central theme for many financial sector regulators the world over, due to the benefits of a financially included society,” he said. The central bank chief said the mobile phone has become a tool that not only facilitates communication but was also a means of accessing financial services. Read more: CGTN
Export earnings from refined copper in September decreased by 10 percent to hit K9.1 billion from K10.2 billion recorded in August due to the drop in the price of the red metal on the international market, Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) says. During the period under review, export volumes of copper decreased by five percent to 71,700 tonnes from 75,500 tonnes. ZamStats interim statistician general Mulenga Musepa said last week that copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for the corresponding months decreased by 2.8 percent to US$7,734.7 per tonne in September, from US$7,961.0 per tonne in August. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Minister of Energy Peter Kapala has assured potential mining investors that the energy sector has capacity to satisfy current and future mining production demands. In a speech read for him by Ministry of Energy assistant director for electrification and power development, Michael Mulasikwanda, Mr Kapala said Government has made several investments in the electricity sub-sector to respond to the demands of productive economic sectors, including mining. He was speaking at the 10th Zambia International Mining and Energy Conference (ZIMEC) in Kitwe yesterday. The conference has attracted over 300 delegates and 25 participating countries. Mr Kapala said the electricity sub-sector is currently thriving in generation and Government, through his ministry, is committed to maintaining the status quo through investments. “The new dawn government is committed to providing policy and regulatory framework that supports sustainable growth in energy,” he said. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Technology and Science Minister Felix Mutati says government is partnering with the private sector to establish innovation hubs in an effort to enhance digital skills, innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. Mr. Mutati says government is also promoting development of ICT skills through initiatives, such as the national skills development for youth entrepreneurship countrywide. In a speech read on his behalf by Ministry of Technology and Science Director Communications Milner Makuni during the Zambia Tech-Expo, Mr. Mutati said the platform is targeted at attracting digitally-led government institutions and technology companies to remote their work. Read more: ZNBC
The Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) has won an award at the prestigious World Luxury Travel Awards. The airport was nominated in the category of “International Airport – Continental” with voting open to members of the public. Zambia Airports Corporation Limited Communications and Brand Manager, Mweembe Sikaulu received the award on behalf of the corporation during the 2022 World Luxury Travel Awards Gala Ceremony in Antalya, Turkey. Read more: ZNBC
ZCCM-IH says it has recorded a 10 per cent reduction in revenue as a group for the six-month period ended 30th June 2022, attributing the drop to reduced copper production at Mopani Copper Mines. But company secretary Chabby Chabala says ZCCM-IH, as a company has however recorded K1.2 billion profit, compared to K208.4 million recorded for the six-month period ended 30th June 2021. Chabala says the delay in publishing the company’s financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2021 is due to delayed completion of the audit. Read more: News Diggers
Kitwe District Chamber of Commerce President Emmanuel Mbambiko has pleaded with the government to facilitate the revival of Mopani Copper Mines and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in the Copperbelt Province. Speaking at the 10th Zambia International Mining, Energy Conference and Exhibition (ZIMEC) in Kitwe, Mr. Mbambiko told Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe that the Government should restore sanity at Mopani Copper Mines and Konkola Copper Mines. The veteran chartered accountant said the business community in Kitwe district is affected by the dormant mine operations at KCM and Mopani. Read more: Lusaka Times
Updates From The Africa Fintech Summit In Cape Town
The tech and finance community converge on Cape Town South Africa for the Fintech Summit, 2022 edition. With over 38 countries represented and over USD 4.5 billion in capital raised, this years event promises to unlock value for participants who include the tech and finance community as well as venture capital and investors seeking out new investment space. Read more
The first panel discussion on day one of the on going Africa Fintech Summit focused on the impact of fintech on the African space. Moderated by Sekai Ndemanga who is a Fintech Venture Capital and Started Development lead at AWS, the discussion centred around another of issues affecting the growth of fintech in Africa. This far, most of the panelists were in agreement that that the sector has been experiencing tremendous growth. Here are some of the highlights of this discussion… Read more
International Business and Finance
The US central bank has approved another sharp rise in interest rates as it wrestles to rein in fast rising prices. The Federal Reserve said it was raising its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, lifting it to its highest rate since early 2008. The bank hopes pushing up borrowing costs will cool the economy and bring down price inflation. But critics are worried the moves could trigger a serious downturn. The latest increase takes the bank’s benchmark lending rate to 3.75% – 4%, a range that is the highest since January 2008. Read more: BBC News
Twitter employees are expecting a 50% overall reduction in force after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the reins of the social network last week. That amounts to about about 3,700 employees. The newly minted CEO of Twitter is expected to require employees at the social network who were once authorized to work remotely to report to Twitter offices in and beyond San Francisco, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on the anticipated layoffs. Read more: CNBC
Despite positive progress at COP26, current country pledges and commitments, even if fully implemented, still do not put the world on trajectory to limit global warming to 1.5°C. If the world is to have even a 50% chance of meeting that objective, COP27 must act as a catalyst to turn broad national commitments into specific actions and pave the way to more forceful measures to phase-out coal and end deforestation. Read more: Business Insider
The eNaira was recently touted to be a success by Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The announcement was made during the CBN’s in-house executive seminar in Abuja, on Wednesday. The governor was represented at the event by Aishah Ahmad, CBN deputy governor in charge of financial system stability. It was disclosed that the eNaira has garnered global recognition, and is widely considered a success. This assertion was based on the fact that transactions on the eNaira platform have hit N8 billion. Godwin Emefiele was quoted as saying “Since its launch, a total of N8 billion, consisting of over 700,000 transactions has passed through the eNaira platform.” Read more: Business Insider
East African economies are expected to grow by four percent in 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Friday. According to the lender’s East Africa Regional Economic Outlook 2022, the region recorded a robust economic recovery in 2021, but most members are yet to achieve their pre-COVID-19 growth levels. The report also points out several policy interventions needed to boost East Africa’s post-COVID-19 recovery and build resilience against emerging vulnerabilities as well as the short, medium, and long-term policy options for supporting climate resilience. The findings show that the expected strong growth is not homogenous across the region, with top performers being Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. Read more: CGTN
Nigeria’s first deep sea port has been commissioned. The completion ceremony of Lekki port which took place at the Lekki Area Site in Lagos State brought together dignitaries and stakeholders from Nigeria and China as well as their international partners. “The benefit of this project and the benefits to our citizens can be left better imagined, providing jobs for close to 200,000 people with direct and indirect jobs in the next couple of months ahead. In addition, we can see the figure adding tens of billions in dollar revenue to our country and to our state and to the host community in taxes and revenue,” said Babajide Sanwo-Olu, state governor of Lagos. The Lekki Deep Sea Port is the largest seaport in Nigeria, and one of the biggest in West Africa. Read more: Africa News
Capital Markets Report
In 63 trades recorded yesterday, 11,891 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K44,664.65.Trading activity was also recorded in AECI, Copperbelt Energy Corporation Zambia, Chilanga Cement, PUMA, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Zambeef and Zanaco as well as CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 7,233.54 points as there was no share price movement. The market closed on a capitalization of K72,417,985,445.77 including Shoprite Holdings and K37,635,300,005.77 excluding Shoprite Holdings.