Author: Musa Carter

British businessman turned politician, Lord Mark Ian Price, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State at the Department for International Trade flew into Windhoek on Thursday morning for a carousel of meetings with government officials, private companies and trade organisations. He departed back to South Africa the same evening. On Thursday morning Lord Price met the Minister of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development, Hon Immanuel Ngatjizeko (left), the Prime Minister, the Right Hon Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila (centre left) and the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon Peya Mushelenga (right). Later in the day, he had meetings with representatives of...

Deep Yellow, an Australian uranium exploration company this week said its first drilling campaign conducted under the direction of the new management team has produced a highly successful overall result. According to Deep Yellow Managing Director, John Borshoff in a statement, more than 70% of the 400 holes drilled (averaging 26m in depth) over the Tumas 3 target zone encountered mineralisation higher than the 100 ppm eU3O8 over 1 metre cut-off tested on a methodical 100m x 100m drill spacing. “This work has identified a significant mineralised zone at Tumas 3. This is not only expected to add to...

There is no way back for the sinking SME Bank as two provisional liquidators, Ian Mclaren and David Bruni have been appointed by the Master of the High Court to manage the affairs of the bank in the interim until a final order is issued. Depositors of SME Bank discovered with a surprise on Tuesday morning that the small business bank has stopped operating and all transactions arrested until further notice. Several disturbed SME Bank clients called the Economist to find out what possible recourse is available to get their funds released from SME Bank accounts. Also on Tuesday...

Credit ratings agency, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the five largest South African banks on Monday from Baa2 to Baa3. In a statement released on 12 June 2017, Moody’s said it has downgraded the long-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa, Nedbank and Investec, following the earlier sovereign rating’s downgrade to Baa3. “The rating agency has also downgraded Standard Bank Group Limited’s long-term local- and foreign-currency issuer ratings to Ba1 from Baa3, and affirmed all banks’ national scale ratings.” Moody’s stated. “This rating action concludes the review initiated on 4 April 2017, and follows...

The two head honchos of Paratus Telecom, Barney Harmse and Colwyn van Rensburg (seated centre left and right) took a team to Chicago earlier this month for the International Telecoms Week (ITW), a leading North American platform for the promotion of telecommunications companies worldwide. With nearly 7000 visitors from 140 countries across the globe, ITW was described by the Paratus team upon their return as a huge success. “The attention the Paratus exhibition and team received, was overwhelming” they said. “Paratus Telecom attracted a massive global interest at this year’s event where the world’s telecoms leaders once again gathered”...