By Dean N Onyambu For years, we have said, “Africa pays too much to borrow because the rating agencies are biased.” That anger is understandable. It is also incomplete. In sovereign markets, default is the crash. The spread is the cost of insurance. Investors are not only looking at who has crashed before. They are […]
Zambia Just Got a Credit Upgrade: What It Actually Means for You in Simple Terms
By Savior Mwambwa Fitch Ratings (one of the world’s three major credit rating agencies) has upgraded Zambia’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-‘ from ‘RestrictedDefault’ (RD). This is according to Fitch’s own rating action commentary released on Friday 28th November 2025 titled: “Fitch Upgrades Zambia to ‘B-‘; Outlook Stable”Think of it like […]
MAC Clause
You just cant pull out of deals because you have 2nd thoughts! Same thing is going to happen with the Anglo coal assets. Anglo will also get another boost as they are going to plug higher LT coal prices in models now (and the stars aligning with the IEA coming back with scenarios of longer coal […]
The New Gateway to African Trade
Ceaser Siwale The Southern African Development Community (SADC) finds itself at the intersection of a global logistics crisis, a structural commodity boom, and an unprecedented push for sustainability compliance. For Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that form the essential support structure for the region’s vast mining sector, navigating this turbulent environment means recognising that auditable sustainability […]
The Ai Bubble?
Observed By Tshepo Magagane [USD1.5trn that openAI has committed to spend – oh, it is loss making] “extreme euphoria” “look at chart – double bottom – those are fundamentals” “numbers dont matter because this is changing the world” “I have seen this before” “flammable items not red flags” “enron = off balance sheet exposures – […]
Even If You Have A Cursory Interest in M&A, This Is The Deal To Follow.
Analysis By Tshepo Magagane – Executive A bids for C – what appears to be superior offer B comes in bidding – B has anti-trust concerns – so it promises to give a huge part of the price before the deal consumates or is approved (it will only retain economic rights – not voting rights) […]
The GDP Fetish and What It Conceals
Guest Writer: Savior Mwambwa Despite rapid GDP growth averaging 7.7% annually in the 2000s during the copper boom, poverty remained widespread, with 60% of Zambians still below the poverty line in 2022, and between 1996 and 2015, the number of people living in poverty actually increased by 2.5 million. This is not an anomaly but […]
Africa – transition – the continent is alone in this!
Written By Tshepo Magagane If we are waiting for any Western entity to come and unlock this for us…..we are still hallucinating! We need to be truly smart about unlocking this FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT! We are currently observes in this whole thing and it is getting worse. Let us use whatever capital is available […]
Truly Unlocking Africa’s Potential!
Written By Tshepo Magagane If Africa was to actually lead the unlock of mining – it would create private capital ecosystems – I will continue to put the Khoemacau eg if a local vehicle – Batswana or other SADC – had just put up USD8m, they would have turned that into USD500m – even at […]
Unlocking Capital for Africa’s CRM
As the world requires more mining in the age of electrification Capital has been simply decimated for the sector How does the world untangle this Gordian-Knot? Historic Context – Merchant Banking was the cornerstone of Mine definition and development Eg Strategic Equities book at Merchant Bank would be at USD10bn (unlocking from geophysics stage) This was […]