(Adds Ethiopia foreign affairs ministry statement)
By Giulia Paravicini
ADDIS ABABA, May 24 (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia accused the United States on Monday of meddling in its affairs after Washington announced restrictions on economic and security assistance over alleged human rights abuses during the conflict in the northern Tigray region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the restrictions were meant to push the parties involved to settle the conflict that erupted in November.
Thousands have died in the fighting that has pitted Tigray&#8217;s former ruling party, the Tigray People&#8217;s Liberation Front (TPLF), against the Ethiopian federal government and allied forces from neighbouring Eritrea.
Ethiopia&#8217;s foreign ministry said that if the U.S. restrictions continued, Addis Ababa &#8220;will be forced to reassess its relations with the United States, which might have implications beyond our bilateral relationship.&#8221;
Ethiopia provides peacekeepers for African Union missions in the neighbouring nations of Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. It has also been a key intelligence partner of Western nations monitoring Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa.
&#8220;The attempt by the U.S. administration to meddle in its [Ethiopia&#8217;s] internal affairs, is not only inappropriate but also completely unacceptable,&#8221; the statement from the foreign affairs ministry added.
&#8220;What is even more saddening is the tendency by the U.S. administration to treat the Ethiopian government on an equal footing with the TPLF, which was designated as a terrorist organisation &#8230; two weeks ago.&#8221;
Residents say Ethiopian troops and their allies have killed civilians and committed gang rapes. Ethiopia has denied widespread atrocities and said on Friday it had convicted four soldiers for killing civilians or rape and put 53 others on trial for the same crimes, although the court records were not yet public.
The Ethiopian government has come under increasing pressure from the international community to demonstrate accountability as reports of atrocities in Tigray mount.
The European Union has suspended budget support payments amid reports of gang rapes, mass killings of civilians and widespread looting in the northern region.
Ethiopia has said the conflict in Tigray is an internal matter and that the restrictions are unhelpful coming ahead of national elections scheduled for June 21. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Andrew Heavens)
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Ethiopia accuses United States of meddling over Tigray

* Old school bus converted into low-cost grocery store
* Lockdown initiative aims to fight hunger in inner city
* Customers urged to reuse containers and reduce waste
By Kim Harrisberg
JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; When Sidney Beukes got his bus driver&#8217;s licence, he never imagined himself behind the wheel of a 40-year-old school bus that has been turned into a mobile grocery store serving low-income residents of Johannesburg.
The bus is not an easy drive: there is no power steering and it chugs along. But Beukes said every time a customer climbs aboard to buy groceries they could not afford in the shops, he is reminded of why he would not want to drive anything else.
&#8220;We&#8217;re here for them, when people are stuck without food and it&#8217;s been a tough month &#8230; it makes me happy to see them happy,&#8221; said Beukes, 24, standing next to the gleaming white bus in the South African city&#8217;s working-class Bertrams area.
The Skhaftin bus &#8211; named after a local slang word meaning lunchbox &#8211; was born at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when activist Ilka Stein appealed on social media for social entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas to help the community.
Last year&#8217;s strict lockdown, which began in March, had a devastating impact on millions of South Africans.
By April 2020, 3 million people had lost their jobs and one in five were going hungry, found a survey by universities.
In the fourth quarter of last year, government statistics showed record unemployment of 32.5%, meaning 7.2 million people were out of work.
&#8220;I knew I wanted to look at sustainable solutions around food,&#8221; said Stein, from her offices in Victoria Yards, a former laundry factory in inner city Johannesburg that now houses art studios, community vegetable gardens and a clinic.
The bus&#8217;s seats were removed to make way for cupboards and shelves to stack the fresh vegetables, beans, spices and cereals. By January this year, 90 days after Stein had bought the old bus, it was reborn as a mobile grocery store.
Three days a week, the bus parks in different city neighbourhoods where the team tell customers what the project aims to achieve, encouraging shoppers to bring their own containers to reduce plastic waste.
&#8220;I have moments where I look at this old school bus born out of a crazy idea and think: how did we manage to pull this off?&#8221; she said.

&#8216;MAKING CHANGE&#8217;
Twelve people responded to Stein&#8217;s social media call in June last year, and joined her in a brainstorming session that would last nine months.
&#8220;We felt like we were part of making change in our community,&#8221; said Sanele Msibi, 34, who answered Stein&#8217;s post after losing her job in a creche during lockdown and ended up becoming the bus coordinator.
Hunger is a pressing problem in the inner city where many families are made up of unemployed migrant workers and refugees crammed together in rooms and living hand-to-mouth.
Pollution is another challenge, with residents complaining about inadequate waste disposal and collection that can lead to mounds of trash collecting on streets and in parks.
In the wealthier northern suburbs of Johannesburg, shops like The Unwrapped Co. are pioneering zero-waste consumerism, encouraging shoppers to reuse glass jars and containers when buying food in bulk.
Stein took her brainstorming team to the shop during lockdown, and they discussed why the concept did not exist in low-income areas.
They realised that getting affordable, healthy food to people was the first priority, and that the conversation around reducing waste would follow this transaction.
&#8220;People keep coming into the bus and asking: Who came up with this? It was an idea the community really needed,&#8221; said Msibi, after showing a customer the foods on offer.

&#8216;WHEREVER IT IS NEEDED&#8217;
Desiree Ngcukana said she goes to the Skhaftin every week because it is &#8220;fresh, clean and affordable&#8221;.
The second-hand clothes seller said it helped her save money because she did not have to travel to a shopping mall to stock up on groceries.
&#8220;If you have 50 rand here, it goes much further than in the shops, I&#8217;m not going to bed hungry,&#8221; she said.
Msibi&#8217;s sister Thuli popped into the bus to buy some cereal.
&#8220;I get everything I need here now, I save up to 500 rand ($36) per month on groceries,&#8221; she said.
But some people are still reluctant to board the bus, saying they think it &#8220;looks too nice for them&#8221;, Stein said.
&#8220;This broke my heart,&#8221; said Stein, who hopes with time the community realises the bus is open to everyone, even if they only have a few rand in their pocket.
For now, Stein is funding the Skhaftin through her consultancy company, but hopes it becomes self-supporting soon.
The city has applauded her efforts.
&#8220;The city of Johannesburg welcomes, encourages and supports any initiative that is meant to alleviate and mitigate against food insecurity,&#8221; said Nthatisi Modingoane, the city&#8217;s spokesman, in emailed comments.
He added that the city was supporting small-scale farmers by providing cold storage facilities, electricity, water, seeds, farming equipment and training programmes to help tackle hunger.
Stein hopes others will copy her idea and take it to schools, townships and villages.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to build an empire. I want copycats to take this concept wherever it&#8217;s needed,&#8221; she said.
($1 = 13.9354 rand) (Reporting by Kim @KimHarrisberg; Editing by Helen Popper. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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FEATURE-In South Africa, a zero-waste food bus hopes to drive away hunger

May 22 (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia&#8217;s telecommunications regulator awarded an operating licence to a consortium led by Kenya&#8217;s Safaricom and Japan&#8217;s Sumitomo, Brooke Taye, a senior adviser at the finance ministry, told Reuters.
The total licence fee from the consortium was $850 million, Taye told Reuters. South Africa&#8217;s MTN had also bid for a licence.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Alison Williams)
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Consortium led by Safaricom wins Ethiopian operating licence

JOHANNESBURG, May 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Credit rating agencies S&amp;P Global Ratings and Fitch affirmed South Africa&#8217;s sovereign rating and outlook on Friday, citing an upturn in near-term economic performance and improved public finances.
The public finances of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised nation were in bad shape before the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year and have worsened since, with gross debt predicted to exceed 87% of GDP in 2024 from roughly 80% now.
But in the 2021 budget presented in February, the National Treasury took steps to try to avoid a debt spiral, including by continuing with efforts to contain the public sector wage bill.
On Friday S&amp;P affirmed South Africa&#8217;s long-term foreign-currency rating of BB-, or three notches below the investment grade. It kept the country&#8217;s local currency debt at BB, both with a stable outlook.
Fitch also affirmed South Africa&#8217;s long term foreign and local currency debt ratings to &#8216;BB-&#8216; from &#8216;BB&#8217;, on Friday with a negative outlook.
Moody&#8217;s also rank South Africa&#8217;s debt junk.
Fitch said public finances have improved substantially due to strong fiscal revenue, relative to the last review but remain a rating weakness as the government&#8217;s fiscal consolidation plan relies heavily on containing public sector wages.
S&amp;P said following a contraction of 7% in 2020, it expects South Africa&#8217;s economic growth to rebound to 3.6% this year, before moderating to 2.5% in 2022 and below 2% in 2023-2024.
Fitch forecasted growth of 4.3% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2022.
&#8220;We also expect South Africa to post a second successive annual current account surplus this year, as commodity prices are relatively high and imports are recovering moderately,&#8221; S&amp;P said.
S&amp;P also warned that structural impediments are likely to continue to weigh on medium-term growth, particularly the unreliable electricity supply, weak investment expenditure and an inflexible labour market with heavy unionization across public and private sectors. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by David Gregorio)
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S&P, Fitch affirms South Africa’s sovereign rating, outlook

* S.Africa wants regional intervention to help Mozambique
* SADC summit in Botswana to look at issue next week
* Islamic State-linked militants attacking since 2017
By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, May 21 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa will press for urgent military action by regional body SADC to quell an Islamist insurgency in Mozambique threatening to destabilize neighbouring countries, the foreign minister said on Friday.
It will make this call at a summit of the Southern African Development Community&#8217;s 16 member states next week, Naledi Pandor told Reuters in a telephone interview.
SADC leaders have been discussing how to tackle the insurgency by Islamic State-linked militants, with an option for force, but this is the first time South Africa has explicitly thrown its weight behind the idea of a military intervention.
Since 2008, SADC has had provision for a standby brigade, part of a regional defence pact that allows military intervention to prevent the spread of conflict.
&#8220;We support the use of the defence pact. It&#8217;s never been really been utilised in the region, but we believe this is the time, this is a threat to the region,&#8221; Pandor told Reuters.
A spokesman for the Mozambique government could not immediately be reached for comment. Mozambique has been hesitant about foreign involvement in the past, but last month President Filipe Nyusi said his country needed help from outside powers, so long as they did not replace Mozambican forces.

THOUSANDS DISPLACED
Mozambique, which borders South Africa to the south, has struggled to contain the violence in its northern-most province of Cabo Delgado. Some 52,000 people were displaced in the latest bout in Palma district from March.
The World Health Organisation said on Friday that more than 1.2 million people need urgent health assistance in Cabo Delgado, after recurrent attacks started in 2017.
Analysts suggest the insurgency has its roots in poverty and unemployment afflicting Mozambique, one of the world&#8217;s poorest countries, making recruitment easier among communities not benefiting from new mining or petroleum projects.
The militants have stepped up violence in the past year with more sophisticated attacks, delaying construction of a new $20 billion liquefied natural gas project run by French oil major, Total that declared force majeure on the new build.
&#8220;It is the SADC standby force that we want to come into play,&#8221; the minister said, adding that they would want all members states to contribute troops to avoid a similar situation that occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where only a few countries, including South Africa, sent soldiers.
Speaking ahead of the summit provisionally set for May 25-28 in Botswana&#8217;s capital Gabarone, Pandor said SADC must lead the process and will determine the nature and conditions of support from external sources, such as the European Union or Mozambique&#8217;s former colonial ruler Portugal.
&#8220;We have had our colleagues, for example in Nigeria, saying: &#8216;don&#8217;t allow this to get out of hand because once it does it is uncontrollable and very difficult to reverse&#8217;. So, that is why we believe it is urgently necessary that we have action,&#8221; Pandor said. (Editing by Tim Cocks and Andrew Cawthorne)
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EXCLUSIVE-S.Africa to push for military action against Mozambique insurgents

JOHANNESBURG, May 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s biggest lender by assets, Standard Bank, committed on Friday to publish a strategy and short, medium and long-term targets for reducing its exposure to fossil fuels, following pressure from a group of investors.
However, Chief executive Sim Tshabalala had refused to be drawn earlier this week on whether such a plan would include a date by which the bank would exit fossil fuels entirely.
Sectors like oil, gas and coal accounted for 4% of Standard Bank&#8217;s total lending and commitments in Dec. 2019, totalling around 67.4 billion rand ($4.85 billion).
Climate campaigners have been pressuring the bank to curb its financing to such sectors, but it has so far stopped short of ending financing for even new coal-fired power plants, putting it out of step with some of its peers.
A group of shareholders last month tried to push the bank to table a non-binding vote at its annual general meeting in May that would request it set and publish a strategy and set targets to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels on a timeline aligned with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
In a statement, the bank said after meeting with the shareholders it confirmed it was committed to publishing both the strategy and the targets as part of its 2021 reporting to shareholders.
&#8220;We&#8217;re deeply committed to supporting inclusive and sustainable development,&#8221; Tshabalala said in a statement.
Tracy Davies, executive director of activist shareholder group JustShare, said shareholders were encouraged by the bank&#8217;s commitment.
In an interview on Monday Tshabalala said he could not say for sure whether a date for the bank&#8217;s exit from fossil fuels would be given, as it was still grappling with when this would be feasible by given they underpin many African economies.
&#8220;We&#8217;re doing the analysis,&#8221; he said, adding he could not say until this was complete. &#8220;If we put a date&#8230; it would have to be a date that&#8217;s got credibility and integrity.&#8221; ($1 = 13.9022 rand) (Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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S.Africa’s Standard Bank commits to publish fossil fuel lending reduction targets

* reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/cb-polls?RIC=GHCBIR%3DECI Ghana interest rate forecasts
* reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/cb-polls?RIC=KECBIR%3DECI Kenya rate forecasts
* reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/cb-polls?RIC=NGCBIR%3DECI Nigeria rate forecasts
By Vuyani Ndaba
JOHANNESBURG, May 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Central banks in Ghana and Kenya will keep interest rates on hold next week to check quickening inflation while foreign exchange reforms taking shape will leave Nigeria&#8217;s central bank on the sidelines too, a Reuters poll found.
Twelve analysts polled by Reuters were unanimous in saying interest rates would be left at 14.5% and 7.0% in Ghana and Kenya respectively. Just one of 10 said Nigerian rates would be lifted by 50 basis points to 12.0% next week.
Razia Khan, head of research for Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered, said the focus in Nigeria would be on reforms to the forex market and fuel subsidies.
Nigeria &#8211; Africa&#8217;s biggest economy &#8211; has had multiple foreign currency exchange rates for the past few years which has undermined investment as businesses struggle with dollar shortages and investors hope the rates will converge soon.
The problem was caused by a commodity price slump around 2014, though analysts say the situation is much better now as higher oil prices and the weaker naira will likely rebalance the current account.
Standard Chartered&#8217;s Khan said in neighbouring Ghana the early rollouts of revenue measures, aimed at narrowing the fiscal deficit, including a higher value added tax rate and a fuel levy, would pressure inflation in the months ahead.
In Kenya, the International Monetary Fund and Kenyan authorities reached an agreement this week on economic policies, concluding the first review of its 38-month extended fund facility and extended credit facility financed programme.
Citi wrote that with a slow decline in the fiscal deficit and rising multilateral support the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) should be under less pressure to tighten monetary policy in the medium term.
However, a combination of rising oil prices and a quick re-bound in growth could mean inflationary pressures start to rise in the second half of 2021, which may push the CBK into modestly raising its policy rate this year.
The poll suggested the three central banks were likely to keep rates at current levels for the rest of this year. In South Africa, a Reuters poll last week said borrowing costs there would be left at 3.5%. (Reporting by Vuyani Ndaba; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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POLL-C.banks in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to keep rates steady next week

David

World Bank to commit $150bn for investments in Africa over 5 years

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="558" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-820x558.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403905" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-820x558.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-300x204.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-768x523.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-1536x1045.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GettyImages-459296780-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>An embossed logo of South Africa&#8217;s Reserve Bank sits on a document folder during a news conference with Lesetja Kganyago, governor of South Africa&#8217;s reserve bank, in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago kept South African borrowing costs unchanged in his debut policy meeting as Reserve Bank governor, reinforcing his pledge for continuity. Photographer: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, May 20 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s central bank left its repo rate unchanged at 3.5% in a unanimous decision on Thursday, saying it saw a risk of higher inflation but that the current lending rate was supportive of the economic recovery.



The Reserve Bank (SARB) has now kept rates on hold in its last five meetings, resisting pressure to match rate hikes by fellow emerging market central banks.



The decision was in line with a Reuters poll last week, where all of the 25 economists polled expected unchanged rates.



Headline consumer price inflation increased to 4.4% year-on-year in April, its highest since February last year, from 3.2% in March, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday.



The bank trimmed its forecast for consumer price-growth in 2021, to an average of 4.2% from 4.3% in March. It left forecasts for CPI in 2022 and 2023 unchanged, at 4.4% and 4.5% respectively.



&#8220;The overall risks to the inflation outlook appear to be to the upside,&#8221; SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago said.



&#8220;Despite generally low pass-through, a weaker rand would create additional upside risk to inflation, alongside the ongoing risk from electricity and other administered prices,&#8221; said Kganyago.



The bank has kept rates on hold despite pressure to match rate hikes by other emerging markets such as Russia, Turkey and Brazil, and in anticipation of tighter monetary policy by the United States Federal Reserve.



&#8220;Should the balance of risks change we stand ready to use our tools to contain inflation,&#8221; Kganyago added.



The bank raised its growth forecast for the year to 4.2% from 3.8% previously, citing favourable global conditions and firmer terms of trade spurred by strong commodity export prices.



(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana Editing by Joe Bavier and Toby Chopra)

South Africa’s New Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago

South African cenbank holds rates, but ready to act on inflation

NAIROBI, May 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya&#8217;s health ministry said it is in talks with vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson and Johnson as it seeks alternatives to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot after shipment delays of the drug from India.
Kenya received a batch of AstraZeneca shots through vaccine sharing platform COVAX, which supplies doses to low-income countries and depends on India&#8217;s Serum Institute&#8217;s exports of AstraZeneca drugs.
&#8220;AstraZeneca Vaccine is unlikely to remain the vaccine of choice in Africa because of the delays in shipments currently being experienced from India,&#8221; Kenya&#8217;s health ministry said on Twitter, attributing the comments to health minister Mutahi Kagwe.
On Tuesday, Serum said it would continue to scale up its production of AstraZeneca&#8217;s vaccine and restart exports by the end of the year.
At a press briefing Thursday, Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Africa head, said that COVID-19 vaccine shipments to African countries have slowed down to a trickle in May because of the situation in India.
&#8220;The continent was expecting 66 million doses through COVAX from February to May, but instead has so far received only 18.2 million,&#8221; she said.
Fewer than 2% of Africans had received a dose, Moeti said, compared with 80% in some richer countries.
&#8220;As people living in richer countries can hit the reset button this summer and their lives will return to a semblance of normal, in Africa our lives will continue to be on hold,&#8221; she said. (Reporting by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Ayenat Mersie, Alexandra Hudson)
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Kenya seeks alternatives to AZ COVID vaccine after delays

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Remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa declined by an estimated 12.5 per cent in 2020 to $42 billion, according to the latest report by the World Bank Group. Nigeria saw the most decline. Dilip Ratha, Lead Economist at the World Bank joins CNBC Africa for more.

COVID-19: SSA sees sharp decline in remittances in 2020

By Anita Komuves and Robin Emmott
BUDAPEST/BRUSSELS, May 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Hungary cannot approve a new European Union trade and development accord with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries because it would bring more migrants into the bloc, the country&#8217;s foreign minister said on Thursday.
Budapest&#8217;s refusal to ratify the accord with 79 countries, which was agreed by EU negotiators in December, would imperil years of talks to update the two-decade-old Cotonou development treaty with new provisions on areas including climate protection, human rights and migration.
The pledge to block the treaty is Budapest&#8217;s latest step in holding up EU policies ranging from China to Lebanon. On Tuesday, Hungary declined to support an EU call for a ceasefire in violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
&#8220;All of our proposals have been swept off the table, so we will surely not give our names to this agreement,&#8221; Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said of the Post-Cotonou deal.
&#8220;There is no need for fresh migration waves, especially now,&#8221; he told reporters in Brussels, referring to the impact of COVID-19, according to a news conference posted on his Facebook page.
The new treaty, called Post-Cotonou, must be ratified by all 27 EU states to take effect and, along with trade and aid, it includes ways for African, Caribbean and Pacific nations to take back migrants whose asylum applications have failed in the EU.
But Hungary&#8217;s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban, who rejects EU efforts to share out refugees across the bloc, has objected to some of the terms of the Post-Cotonou agreement, which aims to help the mostly former colonies of EU nations.
The treaty would allow for some legal migration for African, Caribbean and Pacific citizens to the EU through visas and family reunification, for instance.
Orban told Reuters in an interview in September that Hungary did not want &#8220;a parallel society, or open society or a mixed-up culture,&#8221; that included Muslim migrants from non-EU countries. (Reporting by Robin Emmott in Brussels and Anita Komuves in Budapest; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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Hungary to block EU’s Africa-Pacific trade and development deal

LONDON/TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Bitcoin regained some lost ground to trade near $40,000 on Thursday, a day after a brutal selloff on concerns over tighter regulation in China and unease over the extent of leveraged positions in the cryptocurrency world.



The biggest and most popular cryptocurrency rose 9% to a touch below $40,000, after plunging 14% on Wednesday to its lowest since late January. Smaller rival ether was up 11% at $2,700 at 0829 GMT, after its 28% tumble.



Its bounce came after prominent crypto backers such Ark Invest&#8217;s Cathie Wood and carmaker Tesla&#8217;s Elon Musk indicated their support on Wednesday. Wood said in an interview with Bloomberg that she was still sticking to her $500,000 forecast.



Musk reiterated that Tesla was holding on to its bitcoin investments.



&#8220;People consider this as a &#8216;buy the dip&#8217; moment, and many consider this as &#8216;the last chance to buy bitcoin cheap&#8217;,&#8221; said Ruud Feltkamp, chief executive at crypto trading bot Cryptohopper. &#8220;The next few months will show if the bull market will continue or if it&#8217;s the start of the end of its run.&#8221;



Wednesday&#8217;s declines in both digital assets were one of their biggest daily percentage moves in more than a year as investors rushed to exit trades that until recently were outperforming traditional markets such as stocks and bonds.



The latest catalyst was a statement by Chinese financial industry bodies banning the use of cryptocurrencies in payment and settlement, and prohibiting institutions from providing crypto-related products or exchange services between cryptocurrencies and the yuan or foreign currencies.



But bitcoin had already been under pressure for almost a week after a series of tweets from Musk, a major cryptocurrency backer, chiefly his reversal on Tesla accepting bitcoin as payment.



Analysts said the upheaval was far from over.



&#8220;It&#8217;s too early to say if the rebound we’ve seen off the lows in crypto has legs,&#8221; said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne.



&#8220;I question if we will get a chance to catch our breath or is there more volatility in store?&#8221; he said.



Weston pointed to how $9.13 billion of cryptocurrency positions had been liquidated across exchanges over 24 hours, and $532 billion in total volume transacted.



The slide forced some investors to close out leveraged positions in cryptocurrency derivatives, which caused prices to fall further and knocked digital assets down into a lower trading range, traders said.



Coming off a six-fold jump on the back of rising usage in non-fungible tokens on digital art platforms, ether&#8217;s selloff was far more damaging with the digital currency trading 39% below record highs.



James Quinn, managing director at Q9 Capital, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency private wealth manager, said the selling reflected huge crowded positions in ether.



&#8220;Sometimes a market event is looking for a cause. I think this is about positioning. Over the long term, maybe it’s positive because a very crowded trade from a lot of new entrants means there are a lot of new entrants,&#8221; Quinn added.



Still, ether is up more than 270% so far this year and bitcoin&#8217;s year-to-date gains stand at 37%.



While some retail traders saw missed opportunities in the slide, others saw the rout as a chance to pick up digital assets on the cheap.



Milko Markov, an independent London-based trader, said he had been buying ether.



&#8220;Those with a bit more experience in the crypto market know two cardinal rules: don&#8217;t leverage and dollar cost average,&#8221; he said.



(Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore, Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Kim Coghill and Toby Chopra)

Novelty Coins Representing The Bitcoin Cryptocurrency : Illustration

Bitcoin’s star backers, dip buyers help cryptos recover

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) &#8211; An Oxford University college said it would not remove a statue of the 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes that has been a target of British anti-racism protests due to high costs and complex heritage planning rules.
Oriel College has been under pressure for several years from the &#8220;RhodesMustFall&#8221; campaign which argues the statue on its facade glorifies racism. The movement stepped up again during last summer&#8217;s global wave of anti-racism protests.
An independent commission set up to investigate the issue had backed the college&#8217;s original wish to remove the statue.
However the college said on Thursday it had now taken into consideration the challenges of removing the statue. It will accept other proposals to improve equality and diversity amongst its students and academics. It will also work on the &#8220;contextualisation&#8221; of the relationship with Rhodes.
The commission noted that the government, which would have a role in approving any removal, had backed a &#8216;retain and explain&#8217; approach to contested historic statues and sites.
&#8220;The Governing Body has carefully considered the regulatory and financial challenges, including the expected time frame for removal, which could run into years with no certainty of outcome, together with the total cost of removal,&#8221; Oriel said.
Neil Mendoza, the Provost of Oriel College, said he understood that the &#8220;nuanced conclusion&#8221; would disappoint some.
Rhodes, a mining magnate, was a central figure in Britain&#8217;s colonial project in southern Africa, giving his name to Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, and founding the De Beers diamond empire. He expressed racist beliefs and implemented racial segregation measures that paved the way for apartheid.
A head of Rhodes was chopped away from its bust at a monument on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town last year.
A student at Oriel in his youth, he endowed the Rhodes Scholarships, which have allowed more than 8,000 students from around the world, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, to study at Oxford. (Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Giles Elgood)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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Rhodes will not fall: Oxford college to retain statue

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Buhari urges debt relief for African countries

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How financial institutions are responding to climate change risks

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885733-1621486814193-gettyimages-1232552093-omarques_26042021_financekrk_6.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-404426" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885733-1621486814193-gettyimages-1232552093-omarques_26042021_financekrk_6.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885733-1621486814193-gettyimages-1232552093-omarques_26042021_financekrk_6-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A Bitcoin logo seen displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages in the background in this illustration taken April 26, 2021. Omar Marques | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



So you want to play in crypto and become a millionaire overnight? Brace yourself for more days like Wednesday.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BTC.BS=-USS">Bitcoin</a>&nbsp;plunged&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/bitcoin-btc-price-plunges-but-bottom-could-be-near-.html">as much as 30%</a>&nbsp;to about $30,000, according to Coin Metrics.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ETH=">Ether</a>&nbsp;dropped more than 40% in less than 24 hours,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/the-crypto-collapse-heres-whats-behind-bitcoins-sudden-drop.html">breaking below $2,000</a>&nbsp;at one point. Both gained back substantial ground by the end of the day.



But this is par for the course in the world of trading cryptocurrencies. Huge run-ups and equally drastic falls. Over and over.



“Massive retracements are always scary, but seasoned investors tend to see them as buying opportunities,” said Mati Greenspan, portfolio manager and founder of Quantum Economics.



Both crypto and market experts tell CNBC that this is the new normal of investing, and traders should just get used to it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-value-and-volatility">Value and volatility</h2>



Bitcoin’s volatility has to do with a lot of things.



On Wednesday, for example, news of China cracking down on banks completing crypto transactions, plus the tailwinds of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla</a>’s decision to no longer accept bitcoin as a form of payment, certainly helped drive the carnage among digital currencies. The overall crypto market was also probably due for a correction after weeks of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/14/dogecoin-rallies-on-elon-musk-tweet-anticipated-coinbase-listing.html">tweet-inspired record climbs</a>, courtesy of Elon Musk.



But volatility is also the price that bitcoin investors pay for its limited supply and its lack of a central bank to control that supply — precisely the features proponents say give it value.



Part of what makes bitcoin valuable is the fact that it is scarce. There are&nbsp;<a href="https://messari.io/asset/bitcoin/metrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">18.7 million</a>&nbsp;bitcoin in circulation, which is nearing its maximum threshold of 21 million.



New bitcoin are created as a reward for miners, who contribute their computing power to verifying transactions across the decentralized network. Over time, the size of these rewards decreases, so each new completed block earns miners less than it used to.



As a result, the supply of bitcoin is perfectly inelastic. “A rise in demand cannot result in the increase in supply of bitcoin or increase the speed at which bitcoin is issued,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/articles/addressing-bitcoin-criticisms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote Ria Bhutoria</a>, former director of research for Fidelity Digital Assets.



Bitcoin’s value is also derived from its decentralized network. There is no central authority which has the power to intervene in the bitcoin market.



“No central bank or government can step in to support or prop up markets and artificially subdue volatility,” continued Bhutoria. “Bitcoin’s volatility is a trade-off for a distortion-free market.”



Plus, bitcoin is still very new.



″[It’s] only 13 years old and thus doesn’t have much of a trading history,” explained Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “While a company that went public yesterday in an IPO doesn’t have any history, a company can at least be evaluated on its business prospects, earnings and cash flow.”



Because bitcoin is still a nascent asset class, it remains in the price discovery phase. ”[It’s] the most volatile of any asset’s life cycle,” said Mike Bucella, Blocktower Capital general partner.



“Bitcoin has clearly established itself as a new form of value, but the terminal value is still undefined,” continued Bucella. “That information gap lends itself towards a momentum, or technically driven market, absent new information.”



The path to true price discovery is often fraught with seismic price swings, but Bhutoria points out that the alternative is artificial stability, which can result in distorted markets that may break down without intervention.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="493" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885239-1621440217691-eZ7vJ-price-of-bitcoin-ytd-_1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-404427" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885239-1621440217691-eZ7vJ-price-of-bitcoin-ytd-_1.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106885239-1621440217691-eZ7vJ-price-of-bitcoin-ytd-_1-300x200.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Get used to it</h2>



Bucella thinks that today’s trading volatility will be repeated.



“There will be many periods like we’ve seen today, where a negative news cycle has taken out technical levels (and momentum) in the price of BTC – and those are all the more exacerbated when the market participants start taking on leverage,” continued Bucella.



What happened today is pretty typical: Spot selling breaks a key level and leverage gets liquidated, creating a more dramatic sell-off than the market would otherwise indicate. Bucella says it has been the same pattern, time and again, over the last decade, and he thinks it will remain in place until we achieve a mature level of adoption.&nbsp;



Ultimately, “high-risk, high-reward” does tend to be the rule of investing, and it is especially true of bitcoin.



“All investments carry risk, and just like stocks, crypto is subject to price swings,” said Noah Perlman, Gemini’s chief operating officer. “Bitcoin is still a young asset class, but it’s one of the best performing of the last decade.”



Playing the long game is crucial. “As with any market, crypto investors with a longer timeframe and diversified portfolio will see more consistent results,” explained Greenspan.



Bitcoin’s volatility also has a sort of “halo effect” over companies with exposure to the cryptocurrency.



Tesla, which has a $1.5 billion stake in bitcoin, fell roughly 2.5% Wednesday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MSTR" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microstrategy</a>, another company that holds a large amount of bitcoin for its corporate treasury, ended the day 6.6% lower, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/COIN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a>, the newly public crypto exchange which specifically warned in its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000162828021003168/coinbaseglobalincs-1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">S-1</a>&nbsp;that it was vulnerable to volatile moves in the price of cryptocurrencies, dropped 6%.



But to Bucella, this type of volatility is a gift that most fund managers in traditional markets would salivate over. “As a fund manager, with proper risk management, infrastructure and tooling, this level of volatility presents enormous opportunity,” said Bucella.



Whatever your risk tolerance, experts say the volatility won’t always be this bad.



Bitcoin trading is no longer dominated by retail buyers. Professional money managers and corporate America have flooded the market in the last year, and they’re still getting started. As more institutional investors adopt bitcoin, it lends newfound legitimacy to the cryptocurrency, helping to erase its reputational risk. It also creates more stability overall.



“With greater adoption of bitcoin and the development of derivatives and investment products, bitcoin’s volatility may continue to decrease, as it has historically,” noted Bhutoria.



And as longtime value investor Bill Miller pointed out in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/kellycnbc/status/1347605051443978244?lang=en&amp;amp;__source=newsletter%7Ctheexchange" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC interview</a>&nbsp;earlier this year, “One of the interesting things about bitcoin is that it gets less risky the higher it goes.”

A Bitcoin logo seen displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages in the background in this illustration taken April 26, 2021. Omar Marques | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

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Ethiopia accuses United States of meddling over Tigray

FEATURE-In South Africa, a zero-waste food bus hopes to drive away hunger

Consortium led by Safaricom wins Ethiopian operating licence

S&P, Fitch affirms South Africa’s sovereign rating, outlook

EXCLUSIVE-S.Africa to push for military action against Mozambique insurgents

S.Africa’s Standard Bank commits to publish fossil fuel lending reduction targets

POLL-C.banks in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to keep rates steady next week

World Bank to commit $150bn for investments in Africa over 5 years

South African cenbank holds rates, but ready to act on inflation

Kenya seeks alternatives to AZ COVID vaccine after delays

COVID-19: SSA sees sharp decline in remittances in 2020

Hungary to block EU’s Africa-Pacific trade and development deal

Bitcoin’s star backers, dip buyers help cryptos recover

Rhodes will not fall: Oxford college to retain statue

Buhari urges debt relief for African countries

How financial institutions are responding to climate change risks

Bitcoin’s wild price moves stem from its design — you’ll need strong nerves to trade it

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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