Story of the Day
Izwe Africa Group is an established financial credit provider operating in Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Zambia. Initially established in South Africa in 2004, Izwe began to expand into the rest of Africa with the Zambian “Izwe Loans Zambia PLC” branch established in 2008. Since then the Group has experienced a steady, managed upward progression and developing a leading cashless business. Read more
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A delegation from Zambia has held a meeting with World Bank officials on the country’s economic reform agenda and proposed debt restructuring, said a statement released by the country’s finance ministry Wednesday. The delegation, led by Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane, held talks Monday with the World Bank Group Managing Director of Operations Axel Van Trotsenburg and his delegation on the sidelines of Spring Meetings of the bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C., the United States of America. Read more: News Ghana
Government is set to import more electricity from Zambia to ease power shortages as the country approaches the winter season. Speaking during a post-Cabinet briefing in Harare yesterday, Energy minister Zhemu Soda said they have dedicated 100 megawatts for the winter wheat programme and they were in talks with Zambia for more electricity imports. Read more: Daily News
The government has announced plans to establish digital transformation centres across the country to enhance access to information communication technology (ICT), especially among rural communities. Smart Zambia Institute National Coordinator, Percy Chinyama, said this is in an effort to ensure that members of the public utilise and appreciate the Government Service Bus (GSB) initiative. Read more: Lusaka Times
OIL Marketing Companies Association of Zambia (OMCAZ) president Dr Kafula Mubanga says the association projects the price of fuel to reach K35 per litre in the next two months if government goes ahead to remove tax waivers. Commenting on the pronouncement by Energy Minister Peter Kapala that government would reintroduce tax waivers by the end of June, Dr Mubanga said the removal of taxes had cushioned the fuel costing structure. Read more: News Diggers
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South Africa’s multinational telecommunications company, MTN Group, has yet again emerged the biggest company in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) by market capitalisation, according to the latest monthly market report by AfricanFinancials. The latest report prepared by Hartland-Peel is an update as of March 2022 and covers the Top 30 companies in Sub-Sahara Africa ex SA by market capitalisation. Below are highlights from the report. Read more: Business Insider
Leading macro intelligence solutions provider, Fitch Solutions, has released new forecasts about the economies of different African countries. These economic projections are focused on Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Liberia and Botswana. According to Fitch Solutions, rising food inflation and the need for stable harvests are two of the factors that are driving the adoption of mechanisation by more African farmers. To this end, agri machinery imports are expected to increase in 2022, as agritech startups such as Hello Tractor and more large scale farmers across Ethiopia, Algeria and Morocco continue to channel their CapEX budgets towards acquisition of more machineries. Read more: Business Insider
Italian ministers headed to central Africa on Wednesday in an urgent quest for new energy deals as Italy scrambles to break away from Russian gas. Prime Minister Mario Draghi is looking to add Angola and the Congo Republic to a portfolio of suppliers to substitute Russia, which provides about 45 percent of Italian gas. Read more: CGTN
Tesla has been raising prices – but that hasn’t seemed to dent demand for its electric cars. Despite the firm facing higher costs, profits at Elon Musk’s electric car company soared to $3.3bn in the first three months of the year, as customers proved willing to pay more. The firm’s deliveries were up 68% – and would have been higher if not for supply chain shortages, the firm said. Read more: BBC News
Capital Markets Report
In 54 trades recorded yesterday, 28,277 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K101,065. Share price losses were recorded in Zambeef of K0.01 and in Zanaco of K0.07. Trading activity was also recorded in AECI, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, First Quantum Minerals Zambia, PUMA, Real Estate Investments Zambia, and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,959.86 points, 0.34% down from its previous close of 6,983.71 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K71,110,751,829 including Shoprite Holdings and K36,328,066,389 excluding Shoprite Holdings.