
Plain-Sailing Future For Trade Finance Digitization
Trade finance is moving out of the paper age. But to fully leverage digitization, banks need to tear down data silos and standardize tools and procedures.
Roundup
By Antonio Guerrero
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After years of seeing foreign investors flee amid a plummeting economy and political upheaval, Zimbabwe may be about to reverse the outflow with its impending privatization of Zimbabwe Steel & Iron (Zisco), the country’s sole steel producer. Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, has made a bid through its South African subsidiary for the state-owned company, which is currently operating at less than 10% of capacity. Arcelor Mittal South Africa is Africa’s largest steel producer. Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti says a successful Zisco privatization could pave the way for other foreign investments. Zimbabwe posted a 40% economic contraction between 2000 and 2007.
The Nigerian government has presented an amnesty offer to rebels in the oil-producing Niger Delta. The offer went into effect on August 6 and expires October 4. Militants accepting the offer must surrender at designated areas and begin a program for reinsertion into civil society. There is also a weapons-for-cash component. Rebel attacks, aimed at forcing the government to increase the share of oil revenues transferred to the Niger Delta, has led to a more than 20% drop in oil exports since 2006. Output has fallen from 2.36 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2007 to a current one million bpd, driving revenue from last year’s $2.2 billion monthly average to $1 billion in January 2009. Oil accounts for 98% of Nigerian exports.
Ghana’s 8.5% dollar-denominated Eurobonds due 2017 are poised to extend their gains, as new oil finds and increased international assistance are improving the country’s economic outlook. The bonds soared 93% between November 2008 and July 2009. Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa exporter and Africa’s second-largest gold miner. It plans to begin extracting oil by next year and expects to produce 500,000 bpd by 2014, for which it signed a development plan for new oil fields with a group of international oil companies. The IMF and World Bank have agreed to provide the government with a combined total of more than $1.5 billion to support its balance of payments and tackle poverty.