Foreign Exchange

The dollar was on edge Thursday after tumbling overnight, especially against the British pound and the euro. The greenback weakened 0.6% on the loonie Wednesday after the move, but gained ground on the kiwi. The euro plunged below $1.08 after the ECB, the first time it has fallen since 2020. The British pound hit $1.3131 in morning trade, its highest level in a week against the dollar. The dollar index, which measures the dollar against six other currencies, remained at 99.818 after falling 0.52 percent overnight. The Singapore dollar gained about 0.5 percent to a one-week high against the dollar after the move. The Japanese yen was last at 125.37 per dollar. The Russian ruble weakened Thursday, falling 2 percent to 81.50, moving away from its strongest level since Nov. 11 of 71 that it reached last week.

Cryptocurrencies

Major companies are groping their way into the cryptocurrency space. Four years ago, fast food chain KFC tweeted from its Canadian account that it would allow bitcoin as a payment method for its chicken "buckets." Other companies, such as Tesla and Dell, have offered to sell their products in bitcoins before quietly abandoning these initiatives. According to the specialized site CoinMarketCap, the total value of cryptocurrency assets is more than $2 trillion, half of which is in bitcoin. Microsoft is one of the major companies that are cautiously moving into the cryptocurrency space. For its part, PayPal has been offering since last year in the United States and the United Kingdom a system to pay in cryptocurrencies via which users' cryptoassets are directly converted into dollars or pounds when making purchases.

Stock Markets

The indicators of the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) recorded a decline at the end of the trading session on Thursday, April 14, 2022. The BRVM Composite index lost 0.08% to 217.25 points from 217.43 points the previous day. The total value of transactions increased from 4.902 billion FCFA on Wednesday 13 April 2022 to 867.037 million FCFA on Thursday 14 April 2022. As for the capitalization of the stock market, it was established at 6539.759 billion FCFA against 6545.119 billion FCFA the day before, a decrease of 5.36 billion. Only the BRVM 10 index was an exception, rising 0.25% to 166.59 points from 166.18 points previously.

The Bank of Africa Group presented the results of the 2021 fiscal year of its six subsidiaries listed on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) on April 7 in Abidjan. The overall cumulative performance over three years (2019-2021) of the values of the six subsidiaries (Benin, Niger, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali) of the BOA Group including dividends is between 39% and 61%, or an average annual performance of between 12.8% and 19.4%.

Money market

Senegal proceeded, this Friday, to a bond issue by auction for an amount of 57 billion. According to the Ministry of Finance and Budget, this operation, with a maturity of ten years, obtained bids of 68 billion CFA francs, corresponding to a coverage rate of 123%.

Côte d'Ivoire collected Tuesday, April 12, 2022 the sum of 50 billion CFA francs from investors in the financial market of the WAEMU. It was at the end of a simultaneous issue by auction of assimilable treasury bills (BAT) of 182 days and support and resilience bills of 364 days. In response to this solicitation, investors offered CFAF 69.500 billion in aggregate bids. This gives a coverage rate of 139% of the amount auctioned.

Togo was on the regional financial market Friday for a search for the sum of 30 billion CFA francs. The securities, with a face value of 10,000 CFA francs, will have a maturity of 7 years (84 months) and carry an interest rate of 5.8%. This fundraising will be used to support its economy weakened by the health crisis of covid-19.

At the end of an issue of 7-year Treasury stimulus bonds (ORD), Burkina Faso raised CFAF 51.654 billion on the WAEMU financial market. The operation was materialized by investors' global bids of 76.705 billion FCFA. This gives a coverage rate of 153.41% of the amount auctioned.

The central bank has published the new schedule of public debt issuance. In this document, it was revealed that Ghana plans to issue 24 billion cedi ($3.24 billion) of bonds in the second quarter. 20 billion cedi would be used to roll over maturing bonds, while the remaining 4.5 billion are new issues to meet the government's financing needs.

The Congo's Ministry of Finance launched an auction of treasury bills worth 30 billion CFA francs, or 15 million USD, in Kinshasa on Tuesday. This auction is for a period of six months, the treasury bills must be subscribed on Tuesday 12 April, before 11:00 am, Kinshasa time, at the Central Bank of Congo or via the internet platforms.

Commodities

Oil closed higher on Thursday, with Brent crude back above the $110 a barrel mark, after reports that the European Union is preparing an embargo on Russian crude exports. A barrel of North Sea Brent for June delivery gained 2.68% to $111.70. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery advanced 2.58 percent to $106.95. In early morning trading, prices were down slightly following the release of U.S. inventories the previous day, which were higher than expected.

The cable is experiencing a bout of weakness resuming its medium-term downward trend by breaking its psychological support at 1.3000. The short-term moving averages are pointing down. Prices could therefore weaken towards the weekly support dating from October 2020 at 1.2846.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released last week revealed that the Ivory Coast has made inroads into the Turkish cotton market.

The report indicates that Turkey would produce 925,000 tons (t) of cotton in 2022/23 while its consumption would be significantly higher, at around 1.9 million tons (Mt), up 4.4% from the 1.82 Mt estimated for 2021/22. Imports are expected to reach 1.15 Mt in 2022/23, which is far from being negligible. It should be noted that in the first six months of 2021/22, international cotton purchases reached a record of 555,678 mt. Other important suppliers include Azerbaijan, Australia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Spain and... Côte d'Ivoire.

The Ivory Coast Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) launched this week the distribution of a magnetic card to all Ivorian producers. The smart card, a bank card and an identification card, includes a QR code that allows the identity of the grower, but also the area of his orchard or the number of people living in his household. The objective is to have more control over the flow of beans and allow them to make secure transactions.

Companies

Visa inaugurated its first innovation center in Africa on April 6, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. This space dedicated to fintech innovation aims to enable economic actors on the continent to benefit from inclusive solutions for financial services, according to the American payment card giant. "The innovation center in sub-Saharan Africa is part of a global network of Visa innovation centers scattered around the world. There are 12 of these and the first one has been operational since 2014. Visa continues to invest in these centers because they have shown real impact in the market.

African electricity companies intend to play a role in mobilizing priority actions to bring about the emergence of an African electricity market by 2030-2050. Didier Abel Tella, President of the Association of African Electricity Companies (ASEA), reaffirmed this ambition on Tuesday in Dakar. To do this, future actions will take into account the launch of the principle of the single African electricity market that will place ASEA in a role of mobilization and implementation of the African electricity market.le of mobilizing and implementing priority actions for the advent of this single market by 2030-2035''.

Banking and Insurance

The World Bank has approved a $495 million grant for Senegal. This agreement concerns 4 projects for infrastructure, electricity, education and economic development.

BADEA announced an increase in its authorized capital by 376%, from US$ 4.2 billion to US$ 20 billion. The historic capital increase was unanimously adopted by all 18 of the bank's sovereign shareholders, members of the League of Arab States.

The BGFIBank group and the Société d'énergie et d'eau du Gabon have signed a financing agreement. The first one concerns a credit of 40 billion FCFA to support the Société d'énergie et d'eau du Gabon (SEEG) in the realization of its investment plan for the period 2022-2025. As for the second, it constitutes a mobilization of funds of 60 billion francs on the sub-regional financial market by BGFIBourse.

Al Barid Bank, Barid Cash & Dirham Express deploy a new solution for receiving international transfers via the Bank's mobile application "Barid Bank Mobile" and Barid Cash's mobile application "Barid Pay".This launch consolidates 10 years of partnership between Al Barid Bank, Barid Cash and Dirham Express during which a common know-how has been developed to implement solutions that meet customers' expectations.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG), the central bank, has published data on credit extended by commercial banks in its March 2022 monetary policy report. The report shows that credit extended by Ghana's commercial banks to the private sector and public institutions increased to 8.694 billion Cedis (about US$1.15 billion; +18.3%) in February 2022 from GH¢1.664 billion (about US$220 million; 3.6%) recorded in February 2021.

Togo has increased its shareholding in the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) at the end of 2021. The country thus becomes the first sovereign shareholder of the institution.

Governance

The international financial rating agency (Fitch) has noted the effectiveness of the response to the pandemic, which has supported the strong rebound in economic growth. Thus, Benin has achieved an economic performance of 7.2%. This economic growth exceeds pre-Covid levels and previous forecasts.

Regional growth

At the end of a meeting held in Lomé, the Global Fund for Urban Development and theUEMOA Commission announced the creation of a regional investment fund for the municipalities of the 8 countries of the Union, including Togo. The Global Fund for Cities Development (GFCD) is an NGO that will enable emerging and developing local governments to access the external financial resources needed to finance their urban development projects.