African currencies week ahead: Kenyan, Ghanaian and Zambian currencies to firm, Nigeria's to ease

10 Apr, 2016

Kenyan, Ghanaian and Zambian currencies are expected to gain ground in the next week to Thursday, while Nigeria's will weaken, traders said.
"We expect the shilling to regain its lost ground in the coming days as the Chase Bank issue dies out," said a senior trader at one commercial bank.
"I would say we're not likely to see corporate buyers come back on the demand in a big way," he said. The central bank's removal 430 billion shillings ($128.17 million)from the interbank via a repo would offer extra support, a trader from a leading commercial bank said, adding the shilling was likely to trade in the 3,350-3,380 range.
"Stakeholders seek to take advantage of the high investment rates," the local branch of South Africa's First National Bank (FNB) said, predicting a break of the 10.000 psychological level.
"In the week ahead the cedi should be able to rally to record a year-to-date gain, the first in recent years, on high general optimism about the cedi's future trajectory, at least in the short term," said Biggles Amponsah of Accra-based Dortis Research. Ghana on Monday appointed Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku as governor of the central bank on Monday, promoting him from the deputy position to replace Henry Kofi Wampah, who retired at the end of March, four months earlier than expected.
The local currency was flat at 320 to the dollar on the parallel market, while at the official window the currency was trading around the peg rate of 197 to the dollar. "There is presently a lull in the forex market because of the non release of the 2016 budget by the government, but we see transactions picking up as soon as the government reveal its economic direction through the budget next week," one currency trader said.

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