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Musokotwane Leads Delegation To IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings
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World Bank Warns: Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt’s economic underperformance threatens Africa’s growth prospects
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Real Estate Investments Zambia CEO resigns
Story of the Day
The common saying “ask for forgiveness and not permission” has never been more contentious than it is in the current African fintech space. After enjoying regulatory freedom at their inception, fintechs are now grappling with a tightened landscape as regulators finally play catch up with fintech’s innovations and disruptions. Following some of the critical regulatory guidelines manifesting in the past couple years, players looking to innovate may need to readjust their longstanding approach and ask for permission first if they wish to navigate the ever-shifting regulatory environment unscathed. Where fintech has been synonymous with “moving fast and breaking things,” a do-first approach came naturally amidst regulatory grey areas or a lack of regulation at all several years ago. Read more
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Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane says Zambia’s participation in the 2023 IMF/World Bank Group Spring Meetings is important for its debt restructuring journey. Dr. Musokotwane says the meetings are good for consolidating the country’s attractiveness as one of Africa’s best investment destinations. He says the delegation looks forward to the special session on concessional financing for donors and recipients – targeted at economic and financial stability in low income countries. Dr. Musokotwane also anticipates the agreement by high-income-countries on a medium-term strategy to place Poverty Reduction Growth Trust finances on a solid footing through adequate funding and subsidies. He says the country believes that a positive outcome from the process, will help nations like Zambia to become more resilient and ascend to the middle-income status. Read more: ZNBC
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will push this week for urgent resolution of requests by Zambia and Ghana for restructuring of their sovereign debts, and moves to conclude a debt treatment for Sri Lanka, Treasury said on Monday. Yellen, who is slated to meet counterparts from around the world during this week’s meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), is also pushing for concrete steps to speed up the overall debt relief process and make it more predictable, Treasury Undersecretary Jay Shambaugh said. “During the week, Secretary Yellen will … maintain urgency for the speedy resolution of Common Framework cases like Zambia and Ghana to remove debt overhangs and foster growth in developing countries,” Treasury said in a statement. Read more: Reuters
The Zambian Government has released a total of K15.5 billion in March 2023 for the purpose of financing public service delivery. Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane has observed that Zambia’s budget implementation credibility has now been restored, as all budgeted programmes are now being funded, considerably. Of the K15.5 billion released, K5 billion was spent on transfers, subsidies, and social benefits, whilst K5.1 billion went towards debt service (domestic and external) and dismantling of arrears, and K3.6 billion was spent on the public service wage bill. K1.3 billion was released for implementation of various government programmes and general operations, while K534.9 million was spent on road infrastructure. From the K5.1 billion released for debt service and dismantling of arrears, K2.9 billion went towards both domestic and external debt payments. From the K5.1 billion, the component related to dismantling of arrears for suppliers of fuel, goods, and services, got K2.2 billion. Read more: Lusaka Times
President Hakainde Hichilema’s recent state visit to Mozambique has been a significant step towards strengthening bilateral cooperation and enhancing economic activities between Zambia and Mozambique. During his three-day visit, President Hichilema toured the Port of Beira, which he described as Zambia’s shortest route to the eastern coast. “We wanted to experience what it offers to our country and the region especially at this time we are optimizing on the benefits of being land-linked. We were very impressed by the state-of-the-art equipment and excellent services, and we have no doubt that the Port of Beira offers the best alternative and a cost-effective route for our imports and exports,” President Hichilema said. Read more: Lusaka Times
International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Zambia will receive the second disbursement of about US$188 million once review of the first 38-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) supported program is approved by the Fund’s Management and formally completed by its Executive Board. In a statement, IMF Mission Chief for Zambia, Allison Holland said once approved, this will bring the total IMF financial support disbursed under the ECF arrangement to Special Drawing Right (SDR) 280 million or about US$376 million. Ms. Holland revealed that Zambia and the IMF have since reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the first review of the 38-month ECF supported program. She said the agreement follows a visit to Lusaka from 22nd March to 5th April, 2023 by the IMF’s mission team for Zambia led by herself. Read more: Money FM
A project to enhance the sustainability of the electricity sector through effective, transparent and enforceable regulatory frameworks in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region is set for launch on Tuesday next week. The specific objective of the Energy Harmonisation project is to harmonise and align regulatory frameworks to facilitate electricity exchanges among COMESA member countries. The project will ultimately enhance electricity trade among COMESA countries. It has funding through a grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) of US$1,500,000. Read more: Zambian Monitor
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
| Currency | Buying | Selling |
|---|---|---|
| USD | 19.7266 | 19.7766 |
| GBP | 24.5043 | 24.5744 |
| EUR | 21.4783 | 21.5367 |
| ZAR | 1.0774 | 1.0806 |
In International Business News
The World Bank has raised concerns over the slow growth of African economies, pointing to the underperformance of Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and other major economies as the primary cause. The global bank also cited high inflation and declining investment growth as factors that are negatively impacting economic growth in Africa. The World Bank emphasized that African governments must prioritise macroeconomic stability, debt reduction, domestic revenue mobilization, and productive investments to reduce poverty and promote shared prosperity in the medium to long term. The bank further projected that economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to decline from 3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2023. Read more: Business Insider
Africa is home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, but over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of African billionaires leaving the continent. According to the Africa Wealth Report 2023, there are currently 52 African-born billionaires worldwide, but only 23 of them still live on African soil. This raises a critical question: Why are African billionaires leaving, and how does their departure impact the continent’s economy? Read more: Business insider
Interest rates in major economies are expected to fall to pre-pandemic levels because of low productivity and ageing populations, according to a forecast. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said increases in borrowing costs are likely to be “temporary” once high inflation is brought under control. Central banks in the UK, the US, Europe and other nations have been lifting interest rates to combat the rate of price rises, otherwise known as inflation. However, in a blog the IMF said that “recent increases in real interest rates are likely to be temporary”. It added “When inflation is brought back under control, advanced economies’ central banks are likely to ease monetary policy and bring real interest rates back towards pre-pandemic levels.” The IMF did not say, however, exactly when interest rates were set to fall back to lower levels. The Washington-based financial institution said ageing populations would be one factor likely to lower inflation. Read more: BBC News
Chinese technology giant Alibaba has announced plans to roll out its own artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT-style product called Tongyi Qianwen. Its cloud computing unit says it will integrate the chatbot across Alibaba’s businesses in the “near future” but did not give details on its timeline. In recent months, technology companies around the world have unveiled their own so-called generative AI chatbots. Earlier this year, Alibaba revealed it was working on a rival to ChatGPT. Read more: BBC News
Democratic lawmakers sent letters to 14 of the largest depositors at Silicon Valley Bank, seeking details about the lender’s “unusually cozy” relationships with its well-heeled clients. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York sent the letters Sunday to executives at Roku, Roblox, Circle and BlockFi, among others, raising questions about their “white glove” treatment by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank was known to cater to the tech startup world. But Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, citing media reports, raised concerns about whether the bank’s relationships went beyond industry standards and potentially hastened its collapse last month. Read more: CNN
In compliance with the Securities Act No. 41 of 2016 and the Lusaka Securities Exchange Listing Rules (“LuSE Rules”), the Board of Directors of REIZ PLC hereby announces the resignation of Mr. Urvesh Desai as Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective 1st April 2023. The Board would like to thank Mr. Desai for his contribution to the Company and wish him the best in his future endeavours. Read more
In 105 trades recorded on Thursday, 2,752,021 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K13,693,716.82. Trading activity was also recorded in British American Tobacco Zambia, Copperbelt Energy Corporation Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Zambeef, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintainted its closed at 7,922.17 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K75,415,453,218.77 including Shoprite Holdings and K40,632,767,778.77 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Picture of the Day
