Africa

GOLD STANDARD By Rebecca Brace and Anita Hawser Global Finance presents the winners of its annual Best Treasury & Cash Management Providers awards. Global multinational corporates may have come out of the 2008 global financial crisis better off than the ...

STAR PERFORMERS By Anita Hawser Over the past six years transaction banking has been one of the best performers in an otherwise lackluster banking sector. Even in the midst of a global financial crisis, suppliers and salaries still need to ...

FRONTIER MARKETS REPORT
​Zambia’s strong and stable economic expansion is enticing firms looking to build their African presence. Among frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa, the country stands out for its stable economy and its long record of strong growth. These factors have helped attract investors to this copper-rich, landlocked nation of 14 million people..

NEWSMAKERS By Erik Heinrich Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa is a man who knows a thing or two about setting lofty goals and achieving them. The wireless communications tycoon is already his country’s richest man and only billionaire, but his latest business ...

MILESTONES By Tiziana Barghini A grand plan to transform a vast area round the Suez Canal—one of the world’s longest and oldest waterways, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas—into a trading and industrial center could finally see the light of ...

MILESTONES   By Tiziana Barghini   Twenty-two years after the Maastricht Treaty—which paved the way for Europe’s economic and monetary union—was signed, five Eastern African countries have inked a similar pact for an area that is much smaller than the ...

  “A $30 decline in oil price over the baseline level shows that, among developing regions, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most impacted, with GDP growth declining by some 1.3 percentage points and current account balances worsening by 4.5 percentage points ...

SIDESTEPPING THE BOOM AND BUST   By Tiziana Barghini   Global Finance sat down with Francisco Ferreira, chief economist, Africa, at the World Bank, to discuss the continent’s economic outlook. The pace of growth in Africa hovered around an impressive ...

REGIONAL FOCUS   By Dan Keeler   Perceptions of poverty and corruption have long dogged sub-Saharan African countries looking for investment. But as growing interest in Africa’s economies has morphed into a frenzy of investment, a new perception gap is ...

Africa continues to outperform other emerging markets, but not all of its 54 countries are moving at the same pace when it comes to political, economic and social developments.

As African countries increasingly appear on investors’ radars, the world’s newest country, South Sudan, is forging ahead with its drive to attract foreign investment.

There is a new definition of the emerging markets and their characteristics that confutes many old and accepted axioms; for example, the idea that the cost of labor is cheaper in developing countries, or that governance is more advanced and regulations are more enforced in developed countries.

EMERGING MARKETS ROUNDUP By Antonio Guerrero Despite declining oil output levels in recent years, Chad is expecting to triple production by 2015 as new oilfields near Lake Chad begin operations. Output is forecasted to rise to 200,000 barrels per day ...

ANNUAL SUPPLEMENT: AFRICA 2013   With a stunning twist of fate, companies that are looking for a refuge from the turmoil of recent years in developed markets are turning their attention to the continent that for much of the past ...

ANNUAL SUPPLEMENT: AFRICA 2013   By Dan Keeler   Developed-markets watchers hope tightening trade ties and increasing foreign direct investment will help ease tensions in North Africa.   Two years after the Arab Spring swept through North Africa and beyond, ...

ANNUAL SUPPLEMENT: AFRICA 2013   By Dan Keeler   Innovative financing techniques and growing investor sophistication are prompting a surge of interest in sub-Saharan infrastructure projects.   Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly turning into the growth and investment story of the ...

ANNUAL SUPPLEMENT: AFRICA 2013   By Erik Heinrich   Africa’s mobile-banking boom is a complicated tale of East versus West. But who’s approach will prove right in the end?   Mobile banking is a force for social and economic change ...

RETURN TO GLORY?
​Côte d’Ivoire has the opportunity to regain its status as a leading African economy. Blessed with a wealth of natural resources, a pleasant climate, a strategical location and a level of infrastructure unrivaled in West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire was long recognized as one of the continent postcolonial stars.

THE RIGHT ROUTE FOR GROWTH By Antionio Guerrero   Nigeria has averaged 7% growth over the past decade. But effectively managing its continued expansion is proving problematic. Infrastructure investment is a key challenge.   The Nigeria stock exchange building in ...

NEW OIL REFINERY TO NEARLY DOUBLE NIGERIA’S OUTPUT   By Antonio Guerrero   Aliko Dangote, head of the Dangote Group and ranked as Africa’s wealthiest man, will invest up to $8 billion to build a new oil refinery complex in his ...