Story of the Day
For over a decade, Zambia’s largest brewer Zambian Breweries, part of the world’s largest brewing company – Anheuser-Busch InBev – has continued to invest in its business, people, and equipment. Last year Zambian Breweries spent over half a billion kwacha on the purchase of plant property and equipment. The disclosure, made in the company’s most recent annual report to shareholders, came with the announcement of the completion of the US$18 million expansion of its Ndola and Lusaka plants. Read more
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Payments in Africa’s red metal hotspot Zambia are morphing fast to cashless especially with the advent of the COVID19 pandemic. This follows the soaring appetite for electronic money as the central bank widened limits for plastic money in the pandemic period. According to the Bank of Zambia quarterly payment statistics, total retail payments for 1Q22 grew 44% to K117.1 billion year on year supported by 49.0% sprint in mobile money (MoMo) transactions to K50.4 billion, 19% growth in electronic funds transfer (ETF) and a 133% rally in point of sale (POS) spike to K24.3 billion. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) Provisional Liquidator Celine Nair has assured employees that their jobs are safe. Ms. Nair has since encouraged KCM employees to work extra hard to enhance operations. She said this after concluding an induction tour of KCM Nampundwe Mine located in Shibuyunji District, Central Province. Ms. Nair told employees at the mine that government will facilitate efforts to continue operations. Read more: ZNBC
FQM is this year expected to employ 2400 people at its Trident Mine Limited in Kalumbila District and Kansanshi Mining Plc in Solwezi District of North Western Province. This comes after FQM, which runs both mines, announced an investment of over US$1.2 billion at Kansanshi Mining Plc and the opening of Enterprise Mine at Trident Limited which will be Mining Nickel. FQM Chief Executive Officer Tristan Pascal says 1800 people will be employed during the expansion of Kansanshi mine. He adds that the Enterprise Mine, which will be the biggest Nickel Mine in Africa, will employ 600 people and is expected to start operating early next year. Read more: ZNBC
Tobacco, a crop that Zambia records about 90% of it’s total production as exports has recorded a drop in production of about 20%. This has been confirmed by the Tobacco Board of Zambia-TBZ which disclosed that the production of tobacco for the year 2021/2022 has gone down. CEO James Kasongo said this year’s tobacco production stands at about 37 million kgs (37,000 tons), down from about 45,000 tons recorded the previous year. Kasongo noted that the decrease in production can be attributed to the adverse weather conditions in the key tobacco producing areas. Tobacco production had increased by about 50% from 30 million kilograms (30,000 tons) in 2019/2020 agricultural season to 45,000 tons in the 2020/2021 season. Read more: Zambian Business Times
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Reforms set in motion by the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could lead to a rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) that would boost incomes on the continent by 9% by 2035, according to a new report from the World Bank. The AfCFTA is an ambitious project to form the world’s largest free trade area by creating a single market for goods and services across Africa – 54 of the continent’s 55 countries are signatories. Read more: African Business
For the first time in 20 years, the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar is nearly the same — the two currencies are less than one cent away from parity. The euro hovered around $1.004 on Monday afternoon, down about 12% since the start of the year. Fears of recession on the continent abound, stoked by high inflation and energy supply uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more: CNN
In the first half of 2022, African startups raised $3.1 billion in funding, a figure which is more than they had raised in H1’2021 and H1’2020 combined. This is according to findings from a new report by Africa: The Big Deal, a database tracking and sharing insights on start-up funding on the continent. The data from the report revealed that 83% of that funding was raised by startups HQ’ed in one of Africa’s ‘Big Four’ – Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. “Startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt have raised 83 per cent of all funding and signed 78 per cent of all $1 million-plus deals., and there is no indication that things will change anytime soon, as these percentages have been very consistent over time,” the report noted. Read more: Business Insider
A new report by Debt Justice has shown that many African countries owe three times more debts to West banks, oil traders and asset managers than they do to Chinese lenders. The report also revealed that these Western firms charge African countries double the interest rates, compared to their Chinese counterparts. The revelations have questioned long-standing narrative/belief that many African countries are more indebted to the Chinese. Recall that this is the same excuse Western leaders have repeatedly used to justify their lack of commitment to restructure debts for African countries. Read more: Business Insider
Capital Markets Report
In 29 trades recorded yesterday, 5,023 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K14,867. Share price gains were recorded in British American Tobacco Zambia of K0.01 and Zambeef of K0.01. Trading activity was also recorded in Bata, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Chilanga Cement, Puma, Standard Chartered Zambia, ZAMEFA, Zanaco, Zambia Sugar and CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,865.86 points, 0.02% up from its previous close of 6,864.68 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K70,817,561,730 including Shoprite Holdings and K36,034,876,290 excluding Shoprite Holdings.