Story of the Day
As 2022 begins, COVID-19 and its economic and societal consequences continue to pose a critical threat to the world. Vaccine inequality and a resultant uneven economic recovery risk compounding social fractures and geopolitical tensions. In the poorest 52 countries—home to 20% of the world’s people—only 6% of the population had been vaccinated at the time of writing. By 2024, developing economies (excluding China) will have fallen 5.5% below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9%—widening the global income gap. Read more
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With billions of dollars worth of African gas, gold, copper and cobalt to hit the markets in 2022, industry players are focused on the next big deals. The election of a new government in Zambia in August 2021 has led to optimism that the country is the stand-out player in African minerals exploration for 2022. Read more: The Africa Report
Standard Chartered Bank Zambia has invested over US$2 million in the development of various digital platforms to reach out to the unbanked population and contribute to the growth of the economy. And the bank has launched a cardless cash service on the Standard Chartered mobile application and online platform to enable people to send and receive money on their phones. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
A leading renewable energy company, in the United Arab Emirates Masdar Clean Energy, has shown interest to invest in Zambia’s Energy sector with intentions to scale up the country’s electricity Generation to two Gigawatts capacity. Zambia currently generates only 3000MW. Energy Minister Peter Kapala that the Masdar is also looking at working on all the Interconnectors that link Zambia to Malawi, Congo, Namibia, Tanzania and Angola. Read more: ZNBC
ZESCO Limited and Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc have commenced negotiations to agree new arrangements for power supply and provision of transmission services between them. The negotiations, which commenced during the week starting 17 January 2022, are expected to culminate into a new agreement to replace the bulk supply agreement which expired on 31 March 2020. Read more: Lusaka Times
International Business and Finance
The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) announced via its website that it has raised $400 million worth of syndicated loans that would be used to finance the development of some critical infrastructure across the continent. “This loan will be instrumental in working towards plugging the infrastructure gap we are facing on this continent, especially following the damaging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.” Read more: Business Insider
Opibus, a Swedish-Kenyan technology company that designs, develops and deploys electric vehicles tailored for the African has just introduced the first all-electric bus in Kenya as well as the first African designed electric bus ever. This is the first major step in the company’s vision to provide a locally designed and developed electric bus that can be mass-produced for the pan-African market by 2023. Read more: Business Insider
A group of more than 100 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to make them pay more tax. The group, named the Patriotic Millionaires, said the ultra-wealthy were not being forced to pay their share towards the global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. “As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair,” they said in an open letter. Read more: BBC News
China’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rates again on Thursday amid concerns about an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China reduced the one-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points from 3.8% to 3.7%. In December, the PBOC cut the one-year loan prime rate for the first time since April 2020. The five-year loan prime rate was lowered by 5 basis points from 4.65% to 4.6% — it was the first cut since April 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. Read more: CNBC
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In 56 trades recorded yesterday, 69,386 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K182,601. A share price gain of K0.04 was recorded in Puma. A share price loss of K0.06 was recorded in Zanaco. Trading activity was also recorded in Airtel, CHIL, Standard Chartered Limited, Zambeef, ZAMEFA and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,282.65 points, 0.24% down from its previous close of 6,297.92 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K68,155,797,707 including Shoprite Holdings and K33,373,112,267 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
