Governance, good regulation and availability of market data and prices help African fund managers decide on investing into other African markets, according to a survey of 50 African asset-managers for the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) project. Key factors when they choose new markets are: market regulation (91% of replies), followed by investor regulation and availability of market data and prices (90% each).

The seven leading African stock exchanges struck about $1.6 billion in cross-border deals in 15 months as fund managers expressed optimism on the prospects of investments in the African markets.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) government debt burdens are rising at a faster pace and to a higher level than for other emerging markets (EM), heightening the risk of further downgrades and defaults, Fitch Ratings says. The agency forecasts the median government debt/GDP ratio for the 19 Fitch-rated SSA sovereigns to reach 71% at end-2020, from 57% at end-2019 and 26% in 2012.

The coronavirus pandemic and the oil price shock it triggered have had a severe impact on sovereigns in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which led to rating downgrades on seven of the 19 rated SSA sovereigns since the beginning of March 2020, Fitch Ratings says. Four sovereigns in the region have Negative Outlooks on their rating, which is unusually high, pointing to continued downside risks to ratings. Four sovereigns are rated 'CCC' or below (in such cases Fitch does not assign Outlooks) while only one (Cote d'Ivoire) carries a Positive Outlook.