Foreign exchange market

Despite US inflation, the European currency is at its highest level in two months against the dollar. In addition, the rebound in growth in the United Kingdom has enabled GDP to exceed its level before the Covid-19 pandemic. In this atmosphere, the pound sterling benefited Friday against the euro and the dollar.

Recently, the franc and the euro have reached parity, due to the supposed restraint of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in its interventions on the foreign exchange market. The franc's strength against the euro seems to have waned somewhat, at least for a while. As of December 31, the rate had reached 1.03245. But the single currency has since recovered and recrossed the 1.05 franc mark on Monday. Banks' sight deposits with the SNB certainly swelled by 1.86 billion francs on a weekly basis, but they only concern the week which ended last Wednesday, and are generally influenced by the strong demand for banknotes. bank at the end of the year.

Cryptocurrencies

Moroccan financier Nadia Fettah Alaoui announced Monday, January 10, 2022, in Parliament that the Kingdom is studying the opportunity to develop a legal framework that would regulate the use of cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain data platform Chainalysis revealed that $14 billion (€12.4 billion) worth of cryptocurrency was sent to illicit addresses in 2021, twice as much as in 2020. $2.2 billion (1.93 billion euros) were stolen outright from Decentralized Finance protocols in 2021. The illicit addresses currently hold at least $10 billion (8/.8 billion euros) in cryptocurrencies, most of which are held by wallets involved in cryptocurrency theft. Cybercriminals earned 82% more revenue from scams last year, harvesting $7.8 billion in cryptocurrencies from victims.

Stock markets

While the total value of transactions rose from 283.953 million FCFA the day before to 701.241 million FCFA, the two indices of the Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM) experienced contrasting trends at the end of the trading session of Wednesday January 12, 2022. The BRVM 10 index thus fell by 0.01% to 158.46 points against 158.47 points the day before. For its part, the composite index rose by 0.12% to 204.18 points against 203.93 points previously. The market capitalization of the equity market increased by 11.213 billion FCFA, standing at 6146.304 billion FCFA against 6135.091 billion FCFA the day before. That of the bond market is also up by 9.9 billion FCFA to 7234.219 billion FCFA against 7224.319 billion FCFA.

Money Market

Côte d'Ivoire obtains 66 billion FCFA from investors following its issue by auction of assimilable treasury bonds (BAT) with a maturity of 182 days and 364 days organized in partnership with UMOA-Titres based in Dakar. Out of a total amount put up for auction of 60 billion FCFA, the Ivorian Public Treasury ended up with 201.906 billion FCFA of total bids made

The Malian State should carry out an operation to issue assimilable treasury bonds on January 12, 2022. The country was deprived of this loan of 30 billion FCFA because of the sanctions taken against the head of transition Assimi Goîta who intends to s remain there until 2025.

From January 12 to 14, 2022, Gabon raised the total sum of 22.510 billion CFA francs on the money market of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). This fundraising was possible thanks to the operations of the treasury stock market of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac). This money will allow the Gabonese State to reimburse the BTAs, on the same market.

The bond loan of 50 billion FCFA 7.15% 2021-2028 issued by Oragroup SA was a great success with a subscription rate of 154%. The amount collected, intended to finance the bank's development plan, was raised from a wide range of investors: insurance companies, pension funds, UCITS and private and individual investors.

Raw materials

Continuing their pause after having recently returned to the records posted during the pandemic, oil prices remained stable on Friday. Annual imports of oil from China, the global driver of hydrocarbon demand, fell 5.4% last year, falling for the first time since 2001. At the same time, imports of natural gas, including pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), rose 19.9% in 2021 from a year earlier to a record 121.36 million tonnes, according to customs data.

In a recently published press release, the Ministry of Commerce's national commission on the prices of exported products indicates that the ton of copper is experiencing a price increase on the international market for the period from January 10 to 15, 2022. The ton of copper is is trading at 9,706.50 against USD 9,600.50 in the week of 03-8 of the current month of this year, an increase of 105.9 more. The same source indicates that other mining products such as zinc, gold and silver are also experiencing an increase in prices in the international market for the period under review, selling respectively at 3,624.65 USD, 58, 71USD and 0.75 USD against 3571.65 USD, 58.45 USD and 074 last week. One kilogram of Arabica coffee is experiencing a slight price increase, trading at 4.08 against 4.06 USD last week of the current month. On the other hand, a kilogram of robusta coffee and that of cocoa observes, for the same period indicated, a slight drop in price on the market, selling respectively at 2.30 against 2.31 USD and 1.29 against 1.30 USD. of the past week.

Companies

Microsoft's new Africa Transformation Office (ATO) will be headed by Ghanaian Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh, an international corporate law expert. She is in charge of strategic partnerships for Africa. The creation of the ATO by Microsoft is a reinforcement of its investment to enable digital transformation in Africa.

The Ivorian e-commerce start-up, Afrikrea has just obtained 5.4 million euros to export Africa internationally and becomes “ANKA”. The start-up dedicated to "Made Of Africa", has successfully completed a fundraiser with a view to extending its range of mobile products to multiple retail channels. The name change allows its users not only to sell and ship their products around the world, but also to receive their funds via international, African or local payment methods.

Amazon Prime wants to invest in flourishing African audiovisual production. And for that, the online broadcasting platform intends to rely on Nollywood. The American firm has just signed an agreement with the production company Inkblot, located in Lagos, and the source of some of Nigeria's biggest box office hits.

In a press release, the rating agency Wara claims to have again assigned the long-term rating “A+” to Bolloré Transport & Logistics CI, with a stable outlook, at the end of its second review. The short term rating is “w-2”. Internationally, WARA rates Bolloré Transport & Logistics CI with iBB- /Stable/iw-5. Its rating reflects a leading position in the logistics sector, a very competent management team, a very healthy financial situation and a presence in a buoyant sector with very attractive medium-term growth prospects.

The Franco-Italian car manufacturer Iveco Group, via its bus subsidiary, launched a bus assembly unit in Abidjan on January 10 in Côte d'Ivoire. With its long-standing partner, the Société des transports abidjanais (Sotra), the assembly line has a production capacity of 1,000 vehicles (18 to 26-seater bus type) per year, with the possibility of producing different models marketed under the Daily Ivoire brand.

Standard Chartered plans to close half of its Nigerian branches as part of a shift to digital banking services. At the moment, the company operates only 13 of its branches, against 25 existing in Nigeria. Standard Chartered is seeking to cut costs by permanently embracing changes to working practices and retail banking that have accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) are joining hands to close the gender financing gap. The two partners have launched a new call for applications for IFC ScaleX. A performance-based initiative that will provide a prize of up to $25,000 to business accelerators. IFC ScaleX will help promote more gender-responsive acceleration and investment in emerging markets, which is critical to creating more high-growth, resilient women-led businesses.

Banks and Insurance

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has released provisional figures on currency reserves. The data shows that the foreign exchange reserves held by the SNB have steadily increased in recent years. Foreign currency stocks jumped by around 52 billion and stood at 944 billion francs at the end of December 2021, according to figures from the issuing institute. This amount exceeds the Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) by 30%.

The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) has released 60 billion CFA francs for the Hydro-agricultural development and equipment project for 12,000 ha of land. The funding agreement was reached during the 2nd Arab-African Forum for Trade and Development held in Cairo, Egypt in December 2021. The project should contribute to the sustainable revival of economic and social development in Benin.

The Société commercial gabonaise de réassurance (SCG-Ré) increases its share capital to 10 billion CFA francs. The operation was carried out by incorporating reserves in the amount of 4,219,200,000 CFA francs and by cash contribution of around 780,800,000 CFA francs. This operation allows the company to increase its equity, while strengthening its cash in a context marked by the health crisis.

Financial crimes

Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) said in a statement that all the leaders of Liberia's Ministry of Agriculture are under investigation for corruption. The institution describes the case as large-scale corruption "for issues of conflict of interest, financial irregularities and other improper awarding of agricultural contracts amounting to millions of dollars".

The fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism remains high on the agenda of the Mauritian government. And on behalf of the year 2022, things are looking good. "The year 2022 begins under very good auspices for the financial sector with the confirmation of the removal of Mauritius from the AML/CFT blacklist of the European Union", commented Minister Renganaden Padayachy. Besides Mauritius, four other countries, namely the Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana and Iraq, have also come off the blacklist. Recall that Mauritius was included in the blacklist of the European Commission in tax matters in October 2020.

Regional growth

Economic growth in the sub-Saharan sub-region is expected to pick up slightly according to the World Bank. In its Global Economic Prospects report, the institution indicates that growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to pick up slightly over the forecast period, to 3.6% in 2022 and 3.8% in 2023. It adds that high commodity prices are expected to support near-term recovery in the region.

The central banks of the franc zone, BCEAO and BEAC, published their traditional reports on monetary governance at the end of December 2021. According to these reports, economic growth forecasts in 2022 stand respectively at 6.4% for the WAEMU zone.