Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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The K65m Was Used For Unza Bursaries – Syakalima
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IMF chief says there’s no significant slowdown in lending and the US Fed may need to do more
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Mr. Mulawo Mwaba appointed as ZAFFICO Corporation Secretary
Story of the Day
Monter Capital Partnership Limited (MCPL) is pleased to announce the successful First Close of its flagship USD100 million Fund. This represents a significant milestone for MCPL and the private equity landscape. The Monter Capital Fund, launched in 2022, reached its first close on April 30, 2023, demonstrating strong investor interest and confidence in MCPL’s investment strategy. The Fund focuses strategically on growth companies in core sectors, including Financial Services, Clean Energy, and Agri-business with a selected supplementary asset class. Domiciled in Mauritius with a presence in mainland Africa, Monter Capital is focused on investments in businesses within Sub-Saharan Africa. Read more
In Local Business News Sponsored by
Education Minister Douglas Syakalima has clarified that the 65 million Kwacha that was forfeited to the state by Faith Musonda was used to increase loans and bursaries for students at the University of Zambia. Mr. Syakalima says the channeling of funds to students loans was announced at a joint briefing Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane. He was speaking in Lusaka today when he flagged off the distribution of 500 single seater desks, and 176 bunker beds to Ikelenge Boarding school which was opened on March 1, 2023. Read more: ZNBC
Centre for Trade Policy and Development CTPD says the hosting of the 22nd edition of the COMESA summit will enable the country enrich it’s regional integration policies. CTPD Programmers Coordinator Natalie Kaunda says the summit will help cement Zambia’s position in the region as it tries to benefit more from the trading arrangement. Ms. Kaunda has urged government to implement more waivers on businesses so that they can increase production of goods to be exported within the COMESA region. She says currently the country has some waivers but should consider more waivers so that the Small Scale and Medium Enterprises can take advantage of the incentives to reduce the cost of production. Read more: ZNBC
Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) Board Chairperson Noel Nkhoma says the bank will not be able to resume lending this month despite its earlier commitment. Speaking when he featured on HOT FM’s Beyond the Headlines programme recently, Nkhoma said the bank was in an advanced consultative process with principal shareholders, hence the delay. Read more: News Diggers
Relaxation of Covid-19 measures both internationally and locally has boosted passenger traffic at the country’s airports, resulting in the Zambia Airports Corporation Limited (ZACL) posting 403,395 passengers in the first quarter of 2023. This is from 265,185 passengers recorded in 2022, says ZACL Communications and Brand Manager, Mweembe Sikaulu, in a statement on Monday. Sikaulu pointed out that the passenger statistics in the first quarter of 2023 represented an overall recovery of 99.7 percent to pre-Covid-19 levels. This is compared to recovery levels of 66 percent in 2022 and 31 percent in 2021. She indicated that air passenger forecasts remained optimistic, with passenger numbers expected to reach pre-pandemic levels on most routes by December 2023. Zambia Monitor
Government has apologised for taking longer than promised to announce the new owners of Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mine (MCM) as it is ensuring that interests of Zambians are protected and not compromised. This delay has been caused by the government’s desire and commitment to protect the interests of Zambians in the deal that would be entered into with any of the prospective investors, Mines and Mineral development Minister, Paul Kabuswe, said. Kabuswe in an interview on Monday said government would rather apologise to the miners on the Copperbelt and Zambians in general for going beyond the first quarter without announcing the future of KCM and Mopani to protect the interest Zambians. “We shall announce who will take over KCM and Mopani and we apologise for having taken longer than we had promised.” Read more: Zambia Monitor
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
| Currency | Buying | Selling |
|---|---|---|
| USD | 19.7550 | 19.8013 |
| GBP | 24.4488 | 24.5139 |
| EUR | 21.0983 | 21.1557 |
| ZAR | 1.0212 | 1.0239 |
In International Business News Sponsored By
The International Monetary Fund has yet to see enough banks pulling back on lending that would cause the U.S. Federal Reserve to change course with its rate-hiking cycle. “We don’t yet see a significant slowdown in lending. There is some, but not on the scale that would lead to the Fed stepping back,” the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC’s Karen Tso Saturday in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Federal Reserve in a May banks report warned that lenders are worried about conditions ahead, as trouble in mid-sized financial institutions in the U.S. caused banks to tighten lending standards for households and businesses. The Fed’s loan officers added that they expect the issues to continue over the next year due to lowered growth forecasts and concerns over deposit outflows and reduced tolerance for risk. Read more: CNBC
Crypto giant Binance has been accused of engaging in a “web of deception” after it was hit with another law suit by US financial regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the trading platform ignored the rules meant to protect investors to keep operating in the US. The company is also alleged to have improperly used customer funds. Binance said it would defend the platform “vigorously”. “While we take the SEC’s allegations seriously, they should not be the subject of an SEC enforcement action,” the company said, adding it had been in discussions with the regulator. Read more: BBC News
Linda Yaccarino, the new boss of troubled social media firm Twitter, has started the role earlier than expected. Ms Yaccarino, previously head of advertising at NBCUniversal, joined days after Twitter lost its second head of trust and safety. Elon Musk had announced on 12 May that his successor would join in six weeks but her start date appears to have been brought forward. Twitter also announced it had recruited Joe Benarroch from NBCUniversal. Mr Benarroch was senior vice president of communications, advertising and partnerships at the media giant. He also worked for a number of years at Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram. At Twitter he will focus on business operations. Mr Musk has said he plans to remain involved with the firm. BBC News
Global airlines should make nearly $10 billion in profit this year as business bounces back from the pandemic, according to a new forecast from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA on Monday more than doubled its 2023 profit forecast for the global airline industry despite a looming economic downturn. Airlines are expected to make $9.8 billion in net profit in 2023, up from a December forecast of $4.7 billion. Stronger profitability was supported by cargo revenues, China’s reopening and lower jet fuel prices, IATA’s director general Willie Walsh said in a statement. The industry’s main lobby group expects 4.35 billion people to travel by air this year, not far off the 4.54 billion passengers who flew in 2019. Read more: CNN
China has cut development assistance to Southeast Asia as Beijing directs money elsewhere, giving up its position as the region’s single largest source of funding, according to a report by an Australian think tank. China was Southeast Asia’s biggest single source of development assistance between 2015 and 2019, but was overtaken by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lowy Institute said in the report released on Sunday. Read more: Al Jazeera
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have tripled over the past three years, from nearly three million new electric cars sold worldwide in 2020 to 10 million last year. To put that figure into perspective, for every 20 new cars sold around the world in 2022, three were electric. Government policies and stricter emissions standards have helped accelerate the adoption of electric cars. By the end of 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that some 14 million electric cars will be sold this year – a 35 percent increase from 2022. The table below summarises electric vehicle sales and trends from 2010 to 2022 among countries for which data was provided by IEA. Read more: Al Jazeera
In compliance with Section 3.59 of the Lusaka Securities Exchange Listing Rules (“LuSE Rules”), ZAFFICO hereby wishes to inform its shareholders that the Board has appointed Mr. Mulawo Mwaba as Corporation Secretary. Mr. Mwaba is a lawyer with over 9 years’ experience of practice. He is a holder of a Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) from the University of Zambia and an Advocate of the High Court for Zambia. He previously served as Corporation Secretary and Legal Counsel for Zambia Postal Services Corporation (ZAMPOST) and Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Zamtel), respectively. Read more
In 113 trades recorded yesterday, 50,492 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K206,619.61. A share price loss of K0.99 was recorded in Chilanga Cement. Trading activity was also recorded in CEC Zambia, Real Estaste Investment Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, ZAMEFA, Zambeef and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 8,188.98 points. 0.55% up from its previous close of 8,234.48 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K76,574,830,373.94 including Shoprite Holdings and K41,794,144,933.94 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Picture of the Day
