Sub-Saharan African markets are attracting interest from foreign fund managers seeking to diversify risks in their global portfolio. Andre DeSimone, Executive Director at Kestrel Capital tells us why Africa’s stock markets continue to perform remarkably well despite their small size and low liquidity.
The global financial crisis affected African markets resulting in, among other problems, the drying up of credit lines. What is the status now?
As Africa’s financial system was not highly integrated with America’s or Europe’s, it was not so heavily impacted by the global financial crisis. Also, most African countries never experienced the sort of financial, real estate, or consumer leverage that was experienced in the US and Europe, for example. Aside from a few Nigerian banks, generally the banking systems in Africa weathered the storm quite well. In fact, in Kenya, no major bank suffered badly and many, if not most, continued to record positive earnings growth over the past year. So while the days of easy credit may be gone, in places like Kenya credit is still available to creditworthy clients and real estate development continues briskly. Read the rest of this entry »
Kenyan banks have posted their results for the third quarter and, apart from a few exceptions, are expected to post modest profit growth for 2009 as a whole. Following are key facts about Kenyan banks:
* The latest foreign bank to pitch its tent in Kenya is Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA).
Telkom Kenya on Wednesday revised its Internet charges downwards, raising the stakes in the battle for control of the data market which is expected to be the next frontier of revenue growth for telecoms firms. Subscribers will pay KSh1 per megabyte (MB), one of the lowest Internet tariffs currently on offer from a telecom firm. 
The rising cost of living and waning confidence of local investors in the Kenyan stock market have triggered major re-alignments at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), and appears to have put foreigners in control of trading volumes.
