Breaking News Today – Thursday 20 August 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

• Nigeria’s NairaHost, a regional provider of cloud and web hosting services, has officially announced its acquisition of KingHost. KingHost is now wholly owned by Adedeji Innovations Ltd, the parent company behind NairaHost. Following the acquisition, KingHost has been relaunched and will operate as a NairaHost-powered hosting brand, benefiting from NairaHost’s infrastructure, technology, service platform and operational experience.KingHost will provide a growing range of services including web hosting, WordPress hosting, domain registration, reseller hosting, Linux VPS, Windows VPS, Storage VPS and other web services. This acquisition represents another important step in NairaHost’s continued expansion within Nigeria’s web hosting industry.
  

Business News Today 

Ghana’s Port Upgrades See Record Volumes in Units

The Tema Port in Ghana has strengthened its position among West African competitors (notably Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and Lomé in Togo) through strong container growth at its modern Terminal 3, with gains spilling over into total cargo, transshipment, and other traffic streams. The key driver is Meridian Port Services (MPS) Terminal 3 — a deep-water facility (16 m draft) developed as a public-private partnership involving the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), APM Terminals, and Africa Global Logistics. It opened in 2019, and has since tripled overall port container capacity. The facility can handle mega-ships of 15,000+ TEUs. Continuous investment has reinforced this edge. MPS Terminal 3 handled a record 2.29 million TEUs in 2025. This reflected roughly +22.6% growth in gateway (import/export) traffic and +15.3% in transshipment versus its previous best year (2024). December 2025 alone set a monthly record of over 208,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).

The combination of deep-water capacity, ongoing equipment and digital investments, 24/7 operations, and faster clearance processes has delivered clear volume growth and measurable reductions in clearing and turnaround times. This is allowing container success to support broader cargo lines and strengthen Tema’s competitive standing against Abidjan and Lomé. Further crane deliveries and process reforms in 2026 are expected to sustain the trajectory.

Currency Exchange Manipulation Case to Proceed – After Con Court Ruling

The South African Competition Commission says it will pursue prosecutions against seven major banks as part of its investigations into rand / dollar exchange manipulation from around 2008 -2013. The announcement comes despite the recent Constitutional Court ruling, that cleared most of the accused banking groups from the investigation, including major local banks. The Constitutional Court had unanimously dismissed the Commission’s appeal against most of the banks in June 2026, who had been accused by the commission, of colluding to manipulate the rand. The Commission said it will now move ahead with prosecution of seven banks, with assistance from the five other banking groups that settled with the Commission or applied for leniency. The banks to be prosecuted are BNP Paribas, JPMorgan Chase, JPMorgan Bank, HSBC Bank plc, Standard Americas, Investec Bank, and Investec Limited.

Nigerian Financial Reforms Pays Dividends

Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said yesterday, that the successful reform of Nigeria’s economy, Which included scrapping the government fuel subsidy and devaluing the currency, has helped to stabilise public finances, lift foreign reserves and attract foreign investment. Oyedele pointed to the subsidy and foreign exchange reforms which had delivered $11.71 billion in savings from June 2023 to December 2025. He also said they boosted total federal resources by 20.4 trillion naira through higher revenues and borrowing. The savings had been utilised to support 30.64 trillion naira in extra spending and this had included 9.39 trillion naira on wage increases, 9.37 trillion naira used for servicing external debt and 6.5 trillion naira utilised in improving infrastructure.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• DRD GOLD has declared a record final dividend of 120 cents per share for the year ended 30 June 2026 — a 200% increase from the previous year’s 40 cents. This followed a strong financial year, with operating profit rising 83% and headline earnings up 89%, boosted by higher gold prices. Total dividends for the year reached 170 cents per share.
• Gold eased below $4,500 an ounce on Thursday, but held most of the more than 4% surge in the previous trading session, where it peaked above $4500, as US Treasury yields retreated sharply after the government moved to rein-in long-term borrowing costs. The US Treasury Department announced it will more than double repurchases of 10-, 20- and 30-year debt in the next few months 
• Statistics South Africa data showed yesterday that headline inflation in South Africa dropped to 4.3% year-on-year in July 2026. This was below the 4.5% expected by economists and well below June’s 5.0% rate of inflation. The three main factors impacting the drop were: was the drop in fuel prices and softer food inflation.
• The Nigerian government is set to be the second-biggest beneficiary of MTN Nigeria’s $406.37 million dividend payment scheduled for September 7. Dividends in Nigeria are subject to a 10% withholding tax, meaning MTN Nigeria’s payout will result in ₦54.59 billion ($40.64 million) going to the government before shareholders receive their dividends.
• Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), the listed automotive group in South Africa, is set to acquire 13 properties, owned by the directors of the group. This will be in a cash purchase transaction of R745 million from three of its directors and their respective family trusts.

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar marginally lower today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.16704 while trading against the Pound at 1.36015 The Yen is currently trading at 158.72 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.11 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are -0.8% down this morning, and currently trading at around $4480.88 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are marginally lower this morning, with prices currently around $6.4773 per pound
• Silver futures are down by -0.19% today, and currently trading at around $66.801 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are down -0.25% this morning, and currently trading at $1805.90 while Palladium is -0.43% lower today, and currently trading around $1288.00 per ounce.
• Lithium prices have seen a -0.43% fall today, and currently at CNY151 000
• Brent crude oil prices are trending 0.3% higher today, and currently trading around $91.92 with WTI trading higher at $84.62 currently
• Cocoa futures are up by around 1.8% today, and currently trading at $6031 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are up around 4.58% today, and currently trading at around $3.3245 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are up by 0.18% today, currently trading at around $69 331 per coin.
• Ether prices are trending -0.15% lower this morning, and currently trading around $2244.27

(All prices as quoted at approximately 07H55 Central African Time) 

African General News Briefs:

• South Africa’s national coalition government partner – the DA, has been embroiled in a potential financial scandal of its head of finance, Dr Mark Burke. A recent revelation has indicated that Burke’s investment company Kastelo, had it’s accounts frozen by the South African Reserve Bank over concerns of illegal international funds transfers. Burke co-founded the company with his brother, Nicholas, who is CEO. and has now stepped down from his oversight roles on two powerful parliamentary committees yesterday (19 August).
  
• South Africa says it’s putting infrastructure development at the centre of its agenda as chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Pretoria officially took the role this week after stepping in as interim chair in 2025. It will hold the position until August of next year.