Like their peers in advanced economies, monetary policymakers across Sub-Saharan Africa have turned more aggressive with interest rates.
On Tuesday, September 27 2022, Nigeria’s central bank (CBN) increased the country’s benchmark interest rate to a 20-year high of 15.5 per cent from a previous 17-year high of 14 per cent. This hike was more than anyone had expected and made it one of four African central banks that have hiked by 300 basis points or more this year.
The CBN’s announcement came a few days after the South African Reserve Bank raised its repurchase rate by 75 basis points to 6.25% – its sixth hike in a row.
However, a reverse scenario is playing out in Angola. The central bank cut interest rates last week as inflation continued easing on the back of the currency’s oil-linked rally.
Market roundup
Below is the Weekly Economic roundup from Ventures Africa for the week ending September 30th, 2022.
Stock markets
Here is how stocks performed in major African markets (Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya) at the end of the week:
- Nigeria
Nigeria’s equity market closed the week flat as the NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.01% to close at 49,024.16.
Top 5 gainers
Multiverse Mining and Exploration Plc – +30.85%
Nigerian Exchange Group – +17.65
Jaiz Bank Plc – +15.38
Cadbury Nigeria Plc – +14.77
Eterna Plc. – +9.91
Top 5 decliners
Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc – -10.26
Nestle Nigeria Plc – -10.00
Africa Prudential Plc – -9.91
Royal Exchange Plc – -9.80
Fidson Healthcare Plc – -9.05
- Egypt
The Egyptian stock market was slightly bearish as the EGX 30 declined by 0.68% to close the week at 9827.46 points.
Top 5 gainers
Egyptians Housing Development & Reconstruction – +18.75%
Arab Ceramics (Aracemco) – +9.66%
Atlas for Land Reclamation and Agricultural Processing – +8.00%
Citadel Capital – +7.38%
Delta Sugar – 5.56%
Top 5 decliners
The Arab Dairy Products Co. Arab Dairy – -7.41%
Lecico Egypt 10.41 – -6.89%
Northern Upper Egypt Development & Agricultural Production – -4.25%
Alexandria Flour Mills – -3.49%
International Agricultural Products – -2.92%
- South Africa
South Africa’s equity market traded flat during the week as the JSE All-Share Index gained 0.1% to close at 63,726.37 points.
Top 5 gainers
Brimstone Investment Corp Ltd – +20.52%
Kibo Energy Plc – +20.00%
Jasco Electronics Holdings Ltd – +17.39%
Brimstone Inv Corp Ltd-N – +15.53%
4Sight Holdings Ltd – +9.52%
Top 5 decliners
Ellies Holdings Ltd – -16.67%
Nampak Ltd – -13.15%
Schroder Eur REIT Plc – -13.14%
Stefanutti Stocks Holdings Ltd – -11.11%
Wesizwe Platinum Ltd – -8.57%
- Kenya
Kenya’s equity market had a bearish week as the NSE All-Share Index dropped 4.14% to close at 128.41 points.
Top 5 gainers
Flame Tree Group – +10,327.35%
Nairobi Securities Exchange – +5.13%
Centum Investment – +2.83%
Home Afrika – +2.78%
Co-operative Bank of Kenya – +1.72%
Top 5 Decliners
Crown Paints Kenya – -7.88%
Tps Eastern Africa – -7.14%
Nairobi Business Ventures – -5.56%
Trans-century – -5.51%
East African Cables – -4.03%
Currency markets
Here is how Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa’s currencies performed against the US Dollar at the official markets.
- The Nigerian naira opened the week at N436.33/$1 and closed at N437.03/$.
- The Egyptian pound opened the week at E£19.5/$ and closed at E£19.6/$.
- The Kenyan Shilling started the week at KSh120.70/$ and closed at Ksh120.83/$
- The South African rand gained against the US dollar as it opened the week at R18.06/$ and closed at R17.89/$.
Oil prices
- The price of the OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $92.76/barrel on Thursday, slightly up from the previous week’s $92.67/barrel.
- Brent crude opened the week at $82.86/barrel and gained 6.1% to close at $87.95/barrel.
- The West Texas Intermediate opened the week at $76.71/barrel and climbed 7% to $82.13/barrel.
Crypto markets
The cryptocurrency market ended the week flat, losing only 0.3% over a 7-day period to reach a market cap of $920.11 billion. Here is how the top three cryptocurrencies performed in the last seven days:
- Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.25% to trade at $19,038.
- Ether (ETH) dropped 1.58% to trade at $1,273.
- Binance coin (BNB) gained 3.59% to trade at $284.
Tech funding
- Numida, a Ugandan SME lending platform, raised a $12.3M pre-Series A led by Serena Ventures.
- Unchorlight Kenya Limited, a Japanese/Kenyan BNPL vehicle financing platform for motorcycle taxi drivers, raised a ~$623K (90 million yen) seed round from Honda Trading and Skylight Consulting.
- Livestock Wealth, a South African crowdfunding/ “crowd farming” platform for livestock and crop farming investing, raised ~$553K (ZAR10M) from Mineworkers Investment Company’s Khulisani Ventures.
- Bitpowr, a Nigerian blockchain infrastructure provider offering SMEs solutions for wallets, payments, settlements, and cloud & custodian services, received $150K from 500 Global as part of its accelerator program.
- Drive to Own, a South African vehicle financing platform, raised $100K from Mobility 54 as a winner of its 2022 Digital Transformation Challenge for Africa.
- ComiBlock, a Nigerian crypto investment management platform & robo-advisor, raised an undisclosed amount from Expert Dojo.
From the experts
Commenting on the trend of interest rate hikes in Africa, Virág Fórizs, an emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, believes we haven’t seen its end, thanks to inflation. “Reining in inflation is clearly the top priority, but we suspect MPC members also had an eye on shoring up currencies, which have come under renewed pressure. Concerns about high inflation, currency weakness, and mounting balance of payments strains are likely to prompt sizeable interest rate hikes in upcoming meetings elsewhere too, most notably in Ghana and Kenya.”
