Payments messaging booms in Africa

Payments and securities transactions are growing faster in Africa than in the rest of the world, according to financial messaging institution SWIFT. Traffic volumes of payments information in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 13.2% year to date.

Visa helps towards remittance target cost of 5%

On average Africans paying up to 12.4% ($25) to send $200 home, twice the global average. The fees cost Africans an estimated $1.8 billion a year, according to UK thinktank Overseas Development Institute.

BaDEx getting ready to launch as Zambia’s second securities exchange

A new securities exchange in Lusaka, BaDEx (Bonds and Derivatives Exchange Zambia) is installing tried-and-tested bond and derivative trading software from South Africa’s STT Software, which supplies the JSE, and says it will be ready to launch operations next month, May 2012. BaDEx trading platforms will include spot and derivative trading in bonds, currency, commodities (such as derivatives on metals and silo certificates on the spot market) and a variety of other derivatives including agricultural commodities, precious metals, equity and energy.