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- ‘People who borrowed from DBZ haven’t been paying back’ – Government
- European Union’s PMI drops to an 8-month low
- Zambia’s Trade Kings ranked one of the best performing African brands
Story of the Day
First National Bank (FNB) Zambia and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zambia have entered into a partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a strategic relationship to address the climate change impact in Zambia. Speaking during the signing of the memorandum of understanding to cement the partnership in Lusaka, FNB Zambia Chief Executive Officer, Bydon Longwe said, “At FNB we are aware that the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topic has become critical in how business is undertaken. As a bank that is constantly evolving with the ever-changing needs of our customers and society. The partnership with WWF today amplifies our intent to help create a better world and society for all, in line with our ethos of creating a better world by offering real help in the communities where FNB operates.” Read more
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Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane says the Development Bank of Zambia was not performing well because people who borrowed money from it have not been paying off the debts. Last Friday, the Bank of Zambia announced that it had with effect from July 21, 2023, taken possession of the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) and Betternow Finance Company Limited. The Central Bank said it had determined that DBZ was under capitalised while Betternow Finance Company Limited was insolvent. BoZ’s assistant director for communications stated that despite consistent engagements by the Central Bank, DBZ shareholders and its Board of Directors had been unable to resolve the regulatory capital deficiency of the institution. Read more: News Diggers
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has handed over a two million United States dollar cheque to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Speaking during the handover of the cheque to COMESA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Zambia Ali SAAD Alkahtani said the funds are meant to go towards the construction of the COMESA headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. Mr. Alkahtani said the two million United States dollars is part of the support from the Kingdom towards the construction of a permanent headquarters of COMESA. “I have the pleasure of handing over a cheque for the support provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to COMESA, through an initial amount of two million United States dollars for the construction of the permanent headquarters of COMESA in Lusaka,” He said. Read more: Lusaka Times
About 20 foreign countries are expected to participate at this year’s 95th edition of the Zambia Agriculture and Commercial Show slated for August this year. Agriculture and Commercial Society Cooperative Society of Zambia Limited president, Duncan Mfula, announced this on Monday at a media briefing. Mfula named the 20 countries as China, Italy, India, Iran, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Egypt. To meet the required demand for exhibition space, Mfula said the organization had added two new halls to offer them comfortable and flexible display area. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Mine contractors and suppliers have called for a tripartite meeting with foreign investors and government to resolve problems and challenges being faced in the industry. Association of Mine Suppliers and Contractors (AMSC) president, Coster Mwaba, said having a roundtable meeting was the best way to resolve the problems and challenges which local contractors and suppliers were facing in doing business with foreign investors. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
Currency | Buying | Selling |
---|---|---|
USD | 19.4629 | 19.5119 |
GBP | 24.9748 | 25.0454 |
EUR | 21.5727 | 21.6348 |
ZAR | 1.0907 | 1.0938 |
In International Business News
Euro zone business activity shrank much more than expected in July as demand in the bloc’s dominant services industry declined while factory output fell at the fastest pace since COVID-19 first took hold, a survey showed. The decline was broad-based with the euro zone’s two biggest economies – Germany and France – both in contractionary territory and will likely add to fears the bloc will slip back into recession. HCOB’s flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the euro area, compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, dropped to an eight-month low of 48.9 in July from June’s 49.9. Read more: Reuters
Billionaire Elon Musk’s decision to rebrand Twitter as X could be complicated legally: companies including Meta and Microsoft already have intellectual property rights to the same letter. X is so widely used and cited in trademarks that it is a candidate for legal challenges – and the company formerly known as Twitter could face its own issues defending its X brand in the future. “There’s a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody,” said trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who said he counted nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter X in a wide range of industries. Musk renamed social media network Twitter as X on Monday and unveiled a new logo for the social media platform, a stylized black-and-white version of the letter. Read more: Reuters
After recovering to a seven-year high of 17% and challenging the dominance of non-African brands in Africa in 2022, and despite optimism with the progress of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and other progressive Africa-focused initiatives, African brands’ share of this year’s Top 100 rankings declined by 20% as stalwart African brand MTN dropped out of the Top 10 and Dangote headed towards exiting the Top 30. Our main table below displays the ranking of Africa’s 100 most-admired brands. See our methodology section for information on how we compile the tables. All African brands, except Zambia’s Trade Kings, the highest African mover and new at #38, lost ground. Fifteen percent of the Top 100 brands are new entrants, led by Proctor and Gamble’s oral hygiene brand, Oral B (#34), the highest non-African brand. Zambia’s leading manufacturer of detergent powders, pastes, laundry bars and fabric conditioners, Trade Kings (#38), is the leading African brand. Read more: African Business
Chinese-owned video streaming app TikTok says it will offer text-only posts as competition between social media giants heats up. The platform says the new feature gives users “another way to express themselves”. Earlier this month, TikTok launched a new music streaming service to rival platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. And on Monday, Elon Musk’s Twitter ditched its famous blue bird logo and switched to a black and white X. TikTok users will now be offered three options on the app – whether to post photos, videos or text. Read more: BBC News
In 92 trades recorded yesterday 13,422 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K60,612.60. Share price losses of K0.05 and K0.01 were recorded in Zambeef and Zanaco respectively. Trading activity was also recorded in Airtel, CEC Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank Limited Zambia Breweries, and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 8,222.74 points, 0.08% lower than its previous close at 8,229.51 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K76,723,752,745.17 including Shoprite Holdings and K41,941,067,305.17 excluding Shoprite Holdings.