Kenya – Alton Drew

Interbank Market News Scan: Remittances, foreign exchange; Africa sees average cost of remittances at 8.2% …

Posted by Alton Drewon May 17, 2021in Africa, African Diaspora, foreign exchange, remittancesLeave a comment

Foreign exchange rates of interest…

Currency Pairs	Rates as of 8:13 am EST 17 May 2021
USD/AOA	652.8280
USD/GMD	50.9478
USD/GHS	5.7535
USD/NGN	379.9410
USD/KES	108.0900
USD/SLL	10134.0000
USD/RWF	979.3480
USD/ZAR	14.1119
USD/MZN	58.3200

Source: OANDA

Links to follow …

Remittances. According to the bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief, officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached US$540 billion in 2020, 1.6 per cent below the 2019 total of US$548 billion. Remittance flows remained strong during COVID-19 in 2020, says World Bank (jamaicaobserver.com)

Remittances, Philippines. Remittances continued to grow in March as more countries eased travel restrictions and reopened borders to foreign workers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Monday. Remittances up 4.9% in March (msn.com)

Remittances, Ghana. Remittances from Ghanaians grew by five per cent from $3.39 billion in 2019 to $5.57 billion in 2020, a World Bank report has said.
This was in spite of the grim economic outlook presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected people’s earnings and the economies of nations worldwide last year. Remittances From Ghanaians Abroad Increase | Social | Peacefmonline.com

Remittances, Nigeria. Pan-African credit rating agency, Agusto & Co has projected that Nigeria’s diaspora remittances will reach $22 billion by 2021, representing a year-on-year (y-o-y) rise of five per cent. Agusto & Co Forecasts $22bn Diaspora Remittances for Nigeria in 2021 | THISDAYLIVE

Remittances, Kenya. Kenya is targetting to collect at least Sh700 billion from over four million Kenyans working abroad, Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui has said. Kenya targets Sh700 billion in diaspora remittances annually (the-star.co.ke)

Interbank news scan: Latest global central bank and foreign exchange news …

Posted by Alton Drewon January 16, 2021in China, foreign exchange, interbank market, KenyaLeave a comment

The overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the borrowing cost of China’s interbank market, increased 6.3 basis points to 1.738 percent Friday. Source: Xinhuanet

Some of the world’s biggest banks are urging a US judge not to immediately terminate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) after a group of borrowers filed suit claiming the benchmark was the work of a “price-fixing cartel.” Source: BusinessWorld

How do you wean everyone from asset managers and traders to corporate treasurers off derivatives that are so ubiquitous, they’ve become part of the fabric of the financial system? Source: Bloomberg

Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) covering the lead up to Friday showed that daily interbank rate was on a rising trend, sending the average near the 6.29 per cent that was last seen in April 2020. Source: Business Daily

On January 15th, the midpoint of RMB exchange rate in the interbank foreign exchange market is: 1 US dollar to RMB 6.4633, 1 euro to RMB 7.8549, and 100 yen to RMB 6.2263. Source: SMM News

Unlike West African counterparts, Kenya shows appetite for US dollar …

Posted by Alton Drewon December 6, 2020December 6, 2020in foreign exchange, UncategorizedLeave a comment

While the US dollar has been declining against a number of currencies, the Kenya shelling does not appear to be one of them, at least during the first week of December. According to data from OANDA, a foreign exchange brokerage, from the period 1 December through 5 December 2020, the Kenya shelling price of a US dollar increased 0.625% from 109.268 KES on 1 December 2020 to 109.951 KES on 5 December 2020. The current Bank of Kenya exchange rate is 1 USD for 111.0618 KES.

The Kenya shilling price for the euro, British pound, and Chinese yuan also increased during the same period. The euro shilling price ticked up from 131.076 KES to 133.253 KES (1.660%). The pound-shilling price advanced 1.0358% from 146.162 KES to 147.676 KES while the Chinese yuan advanced 1.2936% from 16.6311 KES to 16.8665 KES.

The Kenyan central bank’s inter-bank interest rate is 3.96% while the 91-day treasury bill is yielding 6.86%.

Foreign exchange rates in Bezos’ Africa play …

Posted by Alton Drewon December 4, 2020in Africa, currency, foreign exchangeLeave a comment

Last November, it was reported that Jeff Bezos, via his personal venture capital fund, would be investing in the Uganda-based financial technology firm Chipper Cash. In an effort to monitor the progress of capital flows into African countries within Chipper Cash’s footprint, we are beginning a series of blog posts documenting foreign exchange rates in these countries.

As of 8:24 am AST 4 December 2020, here are the exchange rates with Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Kenya based on the U.S. dollar.

GHS/USD=0.17061 USD/GHS=5.82987

UGX/USD=0.00027 USD/UGX=3,668.06

NGN/USD=0.00262 USD/NGN=377.448

TZS/USD=0.00043 USD/TZS=2308.76

RWF/USD=0.00100 USD/RWF=974.557

ZAR/USD=0.06551 USD/ZAR=15.2518

KES/USD=0.00895 USD/KES=110.008

Source: OANDA

Legal/Political events impacting African currencies:

U.S. releases jobs report today

The U.S. Department of Labor today will release its jobs situation report which is expected to provide the U.S. and its trading partners with insights into the spending power of Americans. More individuals entering the labor market along with increases in wages should provide African nations trading with the U.S. a gauge on the capacity of the American consumer.

Foreign exchange rates between U.S. and select countries in East Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia

Posted by Alton Drewon November 6, 2020in Africa, currency, Eastern Caribbean, foreign exchangeLeave a comment

As of 11:32 am EST, 6 November 2020:

How to read the chart:

CAD/USD: If you come to the United States with one Canadian dollar (CAD)and wish to sell it for a US dollar (USD), the market price is .76351 USD.

USD/CAD: If you take a US dollar (USD) to Canada and wish to sell it for a Canadian dollar (CAD), the market price is 1.30955 CAD

CAD/USD=0.76351 USD/CAD=1.30955

CNH/USD= 0.15097 USD/CNH=6.62248

EUR/USD= 1.17863 USD/EUR=0.84834

DKK/USD =0.15827 USD/DKK=6.31674

NGN/USD= 0.00260 USD/NGN=382.756

JPY/USD=0.00962 USD/JPY=103.98

INR/USD=0.01349 USD/INR=73.9934

JMD/USD=0.00678 USD/JMD=144.450

GYD/USD=0.00478 USD/GYD= 209.187

GHC/USD=0.00002 USD/GHC= 58,277.2

XCD/USD=0.37037 USD/XCD= 2.70

KES/USD = 0.00909 USD/KES= 107.789

Source: Bankrate

Major political/legal event in the United States: Ballot counting is continuing in the U.S. presidential elections. Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden reportedly has 264 unofficial Electoral College votes while Republican candidate Donald J. Trump has 214 unofficial Electoral College votes.

The official declaration of President-Elect is scheduled for 14 December 2020.

Today, the House Republican caucus plans to meet to discuss the feasibility of President Trump’s legal strategy for turning the ballot counting tide toward him and away from Joe Biden. A number of prominent Republicans have questioned the President’s post election tone. For example, retiring US Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, found Trump allegations of election fraud to be without evidence and Mr Trump‘s words, “disturbing.”

Source: Bloomberg