Foreign exchange market

The euro-dollar parity has alternated between rising and falling for a week. After a turbulent week marked by meetings of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB), the euro stabilized on Friday against the US dollar. While the Fed has signaled its desire to raise rates in 2022, ECB President Christine Lagarde has on the contrary said that she considers an increase next year "very unlikely". Since the start of the year, the Dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of other major currencies, has gained 6.7%. Although the pound temporarily rose to its highest in three weeks against the dollar on Thursday, at 1.3374 dollars to the pound, its performance remains subdued. On Friday, it yielded some 0.04% to 1.3317 dollars (-0.07% against the euro at 85.10 pence per euro).

Cryptocurrencies

In an interview, the CEO of the Brazilian company 2TM announced that the company, backed by Softbank, which manages the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, has launched a venture capital unit focused on blockchain companies in the world. 2TM, valued at around $2.2 billion, after its last fundraising round of $50 million, is the holding company of Mercado Bitcoin, with 3.2 million customers as of October 2021.

In the middle of the week, dogecoin saw its price jump by more than a quarter after a tweet from Elon Musk. The boss of Tesla and Space X has hinted that virtual currency - born as a joke at the end of 2013 and made popular by its adoption by some celebrities - could be used as a means of payment. Following these remarks, the cryptocurrency immediately jumped to $0.20, before falling back to $0.18.

Stock markets

The Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM) and the Central Depository / Settlement Bank (DC / BR), celebrate the 25th anniversary of their creation this Saturday, December 18, 2021 in Cotonou (Benin), their city of creation. The two central structures of the WAEMU Regional Financial Market have reached several major operational milestones, in particular the start of Decentralized Electronic Quotation (1999), the transition to Daily Quotation (2001); the change in Settlement/Delivery deadlines from T+5 to T+3 (2007); the transition from Listing to Fixing to Continuous Listing (2013) and now to the Online Stock Exchange (2020).

At the end of the trading session of this Thursday, December 16, 2021, the market capitalization of the equity market fell from 5873.595 billion FCFA the day before to 5905.405 billion FCFA. That of the bond market, for its part, fell by 746 million FCFA, to 7059.429 billion FCFA against 7060.175 billion FCFA the day before. The total value of transactions fell back to 1.019 billion FCFA against 31.034 billion FCFA the day before. The BRVM 10 index rose by 0.43% to 148.37 points against 147.74 points the day before. For its part, the BRVM Composite index rose by 0.54% to 196.30 points against 195.24 points the day before.

Cifa Bourse, a company specialized in advising on financial operations on the capital markets, now operates in the WAEMU zone from Mali. Approved last September, the new SGI has decided to focus on the development and popularization of capital markets in the West African zone, according to its leaders.

Raw materials

With investors still torn between bullish data and Omicron's ongoing demand risk, both crude benchmarks opened lower on Friday. The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February lost 1.96% to 73.57 dollars. In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the month of January dropped 2.03% to 70.91 dollars.

The price of natural gas still showed high volatility on Friday, losing nearly 20% at the start of the session. The benchmark European gas market, the Dutch TTF (Title Transfer Facility), only dropped 4.13% to 136.87 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). It hit 146.16 euros the day before, a new high since October 6.

The first standard for cotton sustainability, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and Cotton made in Africa have just positioned themselves on carbon neutrality. BCI yesterday launched its 2030 strategy which includes a climate change mitigation target to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of BCI cotton produced by 50% by 2030.

Companies

Canal+ Group has entered into a broadcasting partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to acquire the live rights to promote mixed martial arts (MMA) in more than 25 countries in Africa and Asia. Thanks to this agreement, the French media giant will provide French-language coverage of UFC events in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.

For the 2020 financial year, the Crown Ivorian metal packaging company (Crown SIEM) will pay its shareholders an overall net dividend of 362.730 million FCFA (544,095 euros). The managers of Crown SIEM indicated that the net dividend per share stands at 14.4 FCFA. This dividend represents 19.2% of the nominal value of the share which is 75 FCFA.

Big winners in spectrum auction telecom frequency in the 3.5 GHz band for 5G. Each disbursed the sum of $273.6 million and went well beyond the reserve price of $199,374,000.

The West African Accreditation System (SOAC) has obtained its headquarters agreement in Côte d'Ivoire from the Ivorian government. This agreement, signed by the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and the Diaspora, Kandia Camara, is proof that Côte d'Ivoire intends to respect its given word. The director general and resident representative of SOAC, Marcel Gbaguidi presented, on Wednesday, the copy of the SOAC headquarters agreement in Côte d'Ivoire to the Minister of Trade and Industry Souleymane Diarrassouba.

The first cement plant in Senegal is deploying the most ambitious industrial and environmental project in the sub-region. SOCOCIM has just launched its “Climate Plan” to reduce the carbon footprint of cement with the construction of a new production line of 10,000 tonnes of cement per day. This new tool will enable it to consolidate its position as the leading cement producer in the country and in the WAEMU zone.

In a statement released last Wednesday, Alitheia IDF (AIF), an African women-led and women-focused private equity fund, announced the final closing of its USD 100 million fund with the European Bank of investment (EIB) as final investor. EIB financing for Alitheia Idf is part of an initiative to mobilize EUR 2 billion in investments that promote gender equality and women's economic empowerment on the African continent .

Banks and Insurance

The World Bank has approved funding of 300 million dollars or 147.6 billion from the International Development Association (IDA) for the benefit of Benin. This fund will go to the promotion of employment and economic opportunities for young people and women through access to education and technical and vocational training as well as quality entrepreneurship. The support will enable 46,000 learners in the Beninese education system to receive appropriate training that prepares them to face the challenges of the job market and 2,200 other young people to invest in the world of entrepreneurship.

Ghana is benefiting from $93 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to deal with covid-19. This fund supports the government, which has implemented numerous measures to strengthen health protection and support for businesses.

Cameroon's banking rate recorded an increase of 11.2% in relative value. At the same time, the density of the banking network, from 0.6 branches per 100,000 inhabitants in 2005, stood at 1 branch per 100,000 inhabitants during the period studied, according to the same source. The amounts of loans granted to the economy also doubled over the period, from 1328.3 billion FCFA (2.29 billion dollars) in 2010 to 3443.7 billion FCFA (5.59 billion dollars) in 2020.

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the NGO Invest in Africa Senegal have signed a grant agreement from the Fund for Africa for Private Sector Assistance (FAPA), managed by the Bank and intended to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the amount of one million dollars, this donation will be devoted to capacity building for SMEs/SMIs, which will include, among other things, training for SMEs/SMIs, business diagnostics and technology transfer.

Under the 50th injection of liquidity, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) refinanced 91 commercial banks to the tune of 3684 billion FCFA. This is the BCEAO's second weekly injection of liquidity in December and the 50th in 2021. Despite the CFAF 120 billion increase in the 50th injection compared to the previous one, the call for tenders maintained the same auction conditions at a fixed interest rate of 2%.

Also, the BCEAO Monetary Policy Committee (Cpm) held its fourth regular meeting for the year 2021 by videoconference. The Cpm decided to keep the minimum interest rate for call operations unchanged. of liquidity injection offers at 2.00% and the interest rate of the marginal lending window at 4.00%, levels in force since June 24, 2020. The reserve requirement coefficient applicable to the banks of the Union remains unchanged at 3.0% since March 16, 2017.

The Corporate and Investment Banking Division of Attijariwafa bank has announced the launch of Attijari Ebics. Through this service, the bank plans to complete its digital offer for businesses. Attijari Ebics is a solution based on an integrated and highly secure connection between corporate information systems and those of the bank to receive reporting files and transmit payment or collection transactions.

The West African Development Bank (Boad) has launched its Yennenga Program, dedicated to certified leadership training for the bank's female staff. A program developed in collaboration with the Haute Ecole de Commerce (HEC) Paris. Yennenga intends to put into orbit all the professional potential of women on the continent by creating models likely to inspire the next generations of women.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) wants to mobilize $5 billion to develop an LNG production project in Nigeria. Last week, the Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian company UTM Offshore. The agreement provides for the mobilization of 5 billion dollars. A sum that will be used to develop the first floating gas liquefaction plant in Nigeria.

A major change took place on December 15, 2021 at the head of Afriland First Bank with the appointment of Célestin Guela Simo as Managing Director. The appointed general manager who assumed the responsibilities of central director of operations within the said bank is a house executive who has climbed all the levels in a twenty-year career.

Financial crimes

The mechanism for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Lcb/Ft) was the subject of a two-day training workshop. Opened this Monday, December 13, this capacity building was organized by the Central Bank of the Comoros (Bcc), in collaboration with the financial intelligence service (Rsf). It made it possible to prepare the institutions concerned for the mutual evaluation of the intergovernmental action group against money laundering (Giaba).

The money laundering case has earned British bank NatWest a fine of almost £265 million from the UK courts. The case concerns increasingly large deposits on several accounts of a client of the bank, a jeweler in Bradford (north of England): 365 million pounds in all, including 264 million in cash.

An investigation for aggravated money laundering and corruption of foreign public officials against Banque Pictet & Cie, in connection with a case of embezzlement in Kuwait, is opened by the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) . Several recent judgments of the Federal Court (TF) indicate that the bank did not take "reasonable and necessary" measures to prevent acts of aggravated money laundering in this case, over a period spanning between 2003 and 2012, at least.

Regional growth

The orientation and decision-making committee of the Project for the Promotion of Containerization in West Africa (PPCAO) met on Wednesday, December 15, 2021 in order to improve the competitiveness of containerized transport in the UEMOA space by involving the "National Guarantees" and the Regional Consular Chamber of the West African Economic Monetary Union (CCR UEMOA), sealed by a memorandum of understanding. This meeting adopted the realization of an additional study to specify the strategic approach, the operationalization methods and the associated draft budget of the alternative solution to the Deposit; the inclusion of Ghana in the project to broaden the scope of action; consideration of Regulation No. 14/2005/CM/UEMOA.

The Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (Paftrac) has released the results of its survey on international and regional trade. Targeted companies are optimistic about the outlook for their business, industry and economic growth over the next 12-18 months. According to the study, 400 business owners in 46 African countries are confident that their business will grow next year.

The economic capital of Cameroon, Douala, hosted the meeting of the Community Body for Consultation and Negotiation (OCCN) of the Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Mnadagascar (ASECNA). Until December 27, the hundred or so participants from 17 member countries of the Agency will negotiate and sign the 2022/2024 company contract between ASECNA and its staff.