Daily Watch – Ghana EC to do test run today, Lafarge majority shareholder exits Nigeria

Swiss cement maker Holcim will exit its Nigerian business by selling its almost 84% stake in Lafarge Africa to China’s Huaxin Cement in a $1 billion deal, it said on Sunday. The deal aligns with Holcim’s strategy to streamline its portfolio and focus on high-growth regions, including the coming spin-off of its North American business, which remains on track for a U.S. listing in the first half of 2025. The transaction is expected to close in 2025, subject to regulatory approval, Holcim’s statement said, without elaborating on the reason for this particular sale. The deal is the latest in a series of African acquisitions by Huaxin Cement.

Foreign holdings in Nigeria dropped by $12.8 billion between 2022 and 2023 due to naira woes and corporate exits in the country. Foreign holdings in Nigeria fell from $86.2 billion in 2022 to $73.4 billion in 2023, according to the World Investment Report 2024. Nigeria’s outward foreign direct investments (FDI) stock also slightly declined in 2023 to $17.7 billion from $18.3 billion as of 2022. The decline in Nigeria’s inward FDI stock was linked to the exit of multinationals from Nigeria and the naira devaluation, which affected the USD valuation of foreign holdings in Nigeria. With FDI inflows into Nigeria hitting remarkably low levels in 2024, the $73.4 billion foreign holdings are projected to decline even further.

Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) will conduct a nationwide Special Voting exercise on Monday (today), ahead of the main election on Saturday, 7 December 2024. The exercise was initially scheduled to take place across 328 centres nationwide, but it has been rescheduled for voters in the Western and Eastern regions following the recall of ballots for the two regions. As a result, the Special Voting exercise in the Western and Eastern Regions has been postponed to Thursday, 5 December 2024. The Special Voting exercise allows eligible voters involved in election-related duties, including election officials, security personnel, and media practitioners, to cast their ballots early. A total of 131,478 voters, representing 0.007 percent of the total registered voter population of 18,741,159, are expected to participate in the Special Voting exercise.

Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), one of Namibia’s opposition presidential candidates said on Saturday that his party would reject the general election’s outcome marred by delays and logistical and technical failures. Partial results showed Itula trailing Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) candidate. Electoral authorities decided to prolong voting until Saturday after the original election day — Wednesday — was marred by logistical and technology failures that led to hours-long queues. Itula who finished second in 2019 said extending voting over multiple days undermines the vote’s credibility. He said that his party would seek the nullification of the outcome, suggesting a court petition would follow the declaration of results. Elsie Nghikembua, chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia, said many people had failed to cast their ballots due to “logistical” challenges.