🔅 Bola Tinubu's Son Bought a $10m Mansion - But How?
Plus: 🇨🇩 The Congo’s Oil Dream, 🇸🇩 Sudan's Latest Ceasefire, 🇰🇪 Two Kenyan Pastors Face Charges Over Deaths Of Congregants, ☕ And much more...
Photo of the day: The National Theatre. Accra, Ghana
Markets:
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— Ghana SE: 2,729.68 (0.00%)
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🔻 US S&P 500: 4,097.62 (-0.53%)
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Global Markets: US Banks' Rocky Road Ahead | The US banking sector is having a rough go of it, as evidenced by the recent collapse of First Republic—the second biggest bank failure in US history. With three bank failures since March and investors worried about looming risks, it’s no wonder that bank stocks have been on a wild ride. Even Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase had to tell people to “take a deep breath”—and he’s the one who bought First Republic from the government. The root of the problem? Interest rates. The US Central Bank has increased its benchmark rate from near zero last March to more than 4.75%, and this is impacting the US economy in a big way. With the US banking system having more than 4,000 banks, some analysts predict that we’re in for a wave of consolidation as the economy weakens.
Kenya | The country's economy shrank from 7.6% growth in 2021 to 4.8% in 2022. Unfortunately, the dry spell isn’t just a metaphor—it’s a harsh reality. The country is experiencing the worst drought in four decades, which is driving up the cost of basic goods and straining an already weak currency. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing took the biggest hit, contracting 1.6%. Despite this, some sectors still managed to push the needle, like financial and insurance, information and communication, and transportation and storage.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
ECONOMY
Bola Tinubu's Son Bought a $10 Million Mansion - But How?
You know the saying: like father, like son.
That might be the case with Bola Tinubu, the President-elect of Nigeria, and his 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi Tinubu.
The younger Tinubu purchased a £8.5 million ($10.8 million) mansion in north London in 2017.
Here’s the kicker: it was the same mansion that Nigeria’s government, which was brought to power by his father’s support, had been trying to seize back over an alleged $1.6 billion fraud.
Wait, what did the Nigerian government have to do with this?
The mansion was owned by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko, who the Nigerian government was trying to arrest for allegedly owing the country an oil-trading debt.
The government was also trying to seize the mansion as one of more than a dozen assets it suspected had been acquired by Aluko with the profits of crime.
Aluko denies all allegations of wrong-doing, and says he was acquitted by a court earlier this year.
Oluwaseyi Tinubu owns an offshore company that paid Deutsche Bank about $10.8 million for the property late 2017, when the lender had taken it over from Aluko through a foreclosure.
So, is his father involved in this?
There’s no suggestion that Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition, yet it does raise questions about the source of his family's wealth.
Tinubu himself has said that he made his fortune before going into politics by inheriting real estate, investing well, and working as an accountant and oil executive in the 1980s and early 1990s.
That said, Tinubu has faced allegations of graft in the past which he denies. In 1993, he forfeited $460,000 to resolve a lawsuit in Chicago after US federal authorities said that bank accounts in his name held the proceeds of heroin trafficking. His lawyers have pointed out that he was never charged over the matter.
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OTHER HEADLINES
Across the Continent
🇸🇩 Sudan's Latest Ceasefire | Sudan’s warring factions agreed to a new seven-day ceasefire to start today, while army air strikes on the paramilitary could be heard in Khartoum on Wednesday. We can only hope that this ceasefire lasts longer than the previous ones—which only lasted from 24 to 72 hours—because the conflict has turned into a serious humanitarian crisis: about 100,000 people have been forced to flee with little food or water. Unfortunately, neither army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan nor paramilitary RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo seem to be backing down, so we’ll have to wait and see if this ceasefire can hold. Fighting has already killed at least 550 people, and about 5,000 have been wounded.
🇰🇪 Two Kenyan Pastors Face Charges Over Deaths Of Congregants | Two pastors in Kenya are facing charges over the deaths of more than 100 of their congregants, many of whom reportedly starved to death in the hopes of meeting Jesus. The two pastors—Paul Mackenzie and Ezekiel Odero—were arrested two weeks ago and last week, respectively, and are now being investigated for links to cultism, terrorism, and a “plan to starve till death in order to meet Jesus.” Autopsies of 40 of the bodies found on Mackenzie’s property showed that the causes of death ranged from starvation to strangulation and suffocation. The two men have been remanded in custody until Friday and Tuesday respectively, as investigations continue. Mackenzie’s wife, Rhoda Maweu, was arrested from a hideout in Mtwapa after weeks on the run. Currently, police are conducting search and rescue missions on the 800-acre (325 hectares) property and at an even bigger ranch nearby.
🇨🇩 The Congo’s Oil Dream | The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has some of the most untouched oil fields in the world. But without a connection to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (which is operated by TotalEnergies) those dreams of earning billions of dollars in revenue from those fields will remain far away. Unfortunately, the DRC has been watching their neighbour, Uganda, discover and develop their own oil fields, while the DRC has been stuck in the starting blocks. Unless they can get access to the pipeline, they’ll miss out on a golden opportunity to become a major player in the petroleum industry.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
“If you pick up one end of a stick, you also pick up the other.”
— Ethiopian Proverb.