🎬Farewell

Good morning. Today marks the 69th birthday of the Guinness Book of Records. To answer that burning question on your lips; No. The chances of being recognized as a record holder are very slim. For context;

• They receive over 50,000 applications each year

• Each category alone receives on average, 8000 applications yearly.

• About 1 in 10 applications are successful.

• About 8 in 10 successful applications fail to break the existing record.

And no, there’s no such category as ‘longest time binge-watching Netflix’.

— Edna Akanni, Chibuike Uzor.

ECONOMY

Zimbabwe’s currency struggles are starting to feel…endless.

Nearly five months after changing its currency to arrest inflation, Zimbabwe is back home in familiar territory as the new local unit has started losing ground.

This time, the problem seems to result from how quickly the country ditched the US Dollar and is now rushing back to it.

What’s happened?

The southern African country has been grappling with currency crises for over 24 years. On April 5, it introduced the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), which it said was backed by 2.5 tonnes of gold and foreign currency reserves worth about $285 million.

Authorities were forced to effect the swift change after the Zimbabwe dollar, which was reintroduced in 2019, lost over 80% of its value from the beginning of the year. As a corrective measure, the government thwarted attempts to create a parallel exchange rate for the new ZiG to the US Dollar by arresting informal traders.

The tight regulation on the supply of the ZiG meant that to date, many Zimbabweans are yet to see a ZiG note, and as a result, up to four-fifths of the country’s transactions are still done in USD.

The resulting high demand for USD has enabled a thriving parallel market where today, the ZiG trades at $1 to ZiG24, a far cry from the $1 to ZiG15 seen in April with analysts predicting the ZiG is already going down the same path taken by the defunct Zimbabwe Dollar.

Familiar territory. Zimbabwe is no stranger to ailing currencies. The country has tried five other variants since the Zimbabwe Dollar was first abolished in 2009 after inflation hit 500 billion percent, a result of the central bank turning on the printing presses to help the government meet its obligations. At the time, a loaf of bread for breakfast would run you down a cheeky 12 million Zimbabwe Dollars.

On the bright side. President Mnangagwa in July, hinted that Zimbabwe’s new gold-backed currency would become the sole legal tender before the 2030 deadline to end the country’s multicurrency system. EA.

AFRICA

Headline Quickie

• Denmark will close embassies in Mali and Burkina Faso. The Danish Foreign Minister said on Monday that the coups in both countries have "limited the scope for action in the Sahel Region”. Instead, it plans to open new missions in Senegal, Tunisia, and Rwanda. Relations between the two African countries and the West have gone sour since the military coups in 2022. Both countries have turned to Russia and the Wagner mercenaries for support since.

• Safaricom in Kenya wants Starlink blocked. Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telco has asked the Kenyan Communications Authority to restrict Starlink activity and make it subject to obtaining a local license before operations. This move comes as more people increasingly adopt Starlink as their primary internet provider due to the cheaper fees and a rental kit option at $15/month for users who can’t afford to buy the hardware. CA reports a 10-fold increase in Starlink’s user base in the country through Q1.

• Former Ivory Coast manager, Sven-Goran Erikson passes away. Tributes are pouring in for former Ivory Coast manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson who died on Monday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. The charismatic Suede joined the Elephants in 2010, leading them to the World Cup where they finished third in a tough group. He left the team shortly afterward. He was also known to be the first-ever foreign manager of the men’s English football team in 2001.