African Banker

Publisher

On Trade Finance, Islamic Banking and Other Matters

News Around Africa

Equity Bank Wants to Buy National Bank

Fidelity Bank to Support Agriculture Sector

Nigeria's Fidelity Bank PLC has launched four new financial products with its initiative called the Agri-Nigeria Project that aims to support the emergence of a new generation of Nigerian farmers and agriculturally oriented entrepreneurs. According to the bank's managing director, Reginald Ihejiahi, the value chain in the business of agriculture is long and broad enough to accommodate not only agriculture graduates but also entrepreneurs from other disciplines. Nigeria's Minister of Agricultu...

News Around Africa: African Banker'S World

Afdb's First Investment in an Algerian Private-Sector Financial Institution

Afdb Provides $100m Line of Credit to Intercontinental Bank, Nigeria

Nedbank Seeks Acquisitions

Access Bank's Profits Jump

Six Foreign Banks to Quit S Africa?

Rwanda Approves Kcb's Listing

Deutsche Bank Joins North Africa Solar Project

World Bank's View Is Gloomy

According to the World Bank's Global Development Finance 2009: Charting a Global Recovery report, the global economic recession and financial-market fragility led to net private capital inflows to developing countries falling to $707 billion in 2008. This is a sharp drop from the peak of $1.2 trillion recorded in 2007, yet international capital flows are projected to fall further still this year, to $363 billion. The report expects global GDP growth to rebound to 2% in 2010 and 3.2% by 2011. ...

Vukile to Buy Sanlam Unit

Appointments: New Appointments

Lamido Sanusi Appointed Nigeria's Central Bank Governor

Moyo Appointed Vice-President of Afdb

Vitalo to Take Barclays Middle East Role

Appointments

Rand Merchant Bank Appoints New Chief Economist

Sw8 Investment to Run Nigeria's Wema Bank

New Sierra Leone Central Bank Governor

South Africa Reserve Bank's New Deputy

Nxasana New Chief Executive at Firstrand

Cover Story

Financing African Trade in Hard Times

Clearing the Trade Finance Log Jam

Kenya's flower exporters have had a tough time in recent years. Rose farmers had to contend with drought around Mount Kenya, where rainfall did not even reach 30% of its normal level last year, and also had to juggle currency fluctuations that eroded their margins. Now, another hurdle has appeared on the horizon. Farmers' access to trade finance -- the low-risk short-term borrowing where assets or goods are secured as collateral that tides a business over until payment -- is being hit as bank...

Dr Dev Kar

In an interview, Dev Kar, lead economist at Global Financial Integrity (GFI), talked about the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) recapitalization, Africa's capital flight and what should be done about it, and how the IMF should be reformed. According to Kar, African economies are vulnerable to the current financial crisis and the collapse of primary commodity prices. Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) that generates local employment and involves a transfer of skills is important for...

Time to Bite the Bullet

The deleveraging process -- leading to a sharp decline in cross-border funding -- has hit emerging market economies hard. In the Middle East and Africa region, greater risks are posed by a protracted downturn in global trade (including trade financing) and sluggish business activity. Falling revenues and higher financing needs have affected corporate balance sheets in major countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. Despite these factors, the core financial system is relatively health...

Profile

A Few Miracles Will Do

The bra, it seems, has replaced the blanket as Lesotho's national dress, stated Pravin Gordhan, when he was commissioner of the South African Revenue Service. Gordhan, South Africa's newly appointed minister of finance was commenting on the VAT claims of Metro Cash and Carry Ltd for the 76 million bras supposedly exported to Lesotho, a landlocked country with a population of two million people -- just under half of whom are male. Hunting down those operating outside the law comes naturally to...

Special Report

Islamic Banking in Africa

The Ideal Model for Africa?

It seems likely that the Islamic banking sector will gain business from customers who believe that an under-regulated global banking industry has helped to precipitate the current global financial crisis. Shariah-compliant investment does not allow speculative activities such as hedging and derivatives, and so could be seen as a safer bet. There is also evidence to suggest that Islamic banks have been less severely affected by the economic downturn than other financial institutions, partly be...

What Is Islamic Banking?

In 1975, there was only one Islamic bank in the world -- in Egypt. Today, there are over 300 Islamic Financial Institutions (IFI) spread over 75 countries and 300 Shariah-compliant mutual funds. Currently, about $800 billion is deposited in Islamic banks, mutual funds, insurance schemes and 'Islamic banking windows' at conventional banks. By contrast, the market was valued at only $140 billion in 2000. Shariah law, under which Islamic banks function, prohibits the trading of 'toxic' debts and...

Guide to Shariah-Compliant Assets and Products

Personality

Gideon Gono Sparrow in a Sky Full of Hawks?

Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, has his fans and his detractors although, truth be told, more of the latter. He will hold the distinction for many years to come, if not forever, of having piloted a national currency to an inflation rate that some mathematicians calculate extended to 64 zeroes, and was multiplying so quickly that they had to stop counting. And now, as a unity government tries to right Zimbabwe's capsized ship, Gono is still at the helm of the central bank defyin...