veri blog

Africa doesn’t lack investment talent.It lacks efficient structures . Across the continent, asset managers face the same blockers:high fund setup costs, scarce seed capital, fragmented investor bases, long regulatory timelines, and complex cross-border market access. In that environment, launching a traditional fund — often requiring $5–10 million just to be viable — is frequently unrealistic. That’s where Veri’s Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) becomes transformative. An M

Nigeria’s financial markets are adjusting to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) latest move to reform its foreign exchange regime—an effort aimed at rebuilding credibility, easing currency volatility, and unlocking investor inflows after two turbulent years. The core of the change is a redesigned FX allocation mechanism that introduces greater transparency and price discovery through market-driven auctions, replacing a patchwork of official and unofficial rates. What’s New?

After a nearly three-year hiatus from global capital markets, Ghana is preparing a potential return to the Eurobond market—a move seen as both a test of investor confidence and a marker of the country’s progress since its sovereign debt restructuring. With inflation now under 8%, a broadly stable cedi, and evidence of fiscal tightening, the Ministry of Finance has signaled readiness to re-engage external markets under more disciplined terms. The proposed issuance would be Gha

For many years, the dominant investment narrative around Africa has focused on access — how African investors can reach global markets, how capital can be moved outward efficiently, and how portfolios can be diversified beyond domestic borders. That access matters. But it is not the end goal. The next phase — and the one we are now actively building toward — is about bringing capital into Africa . Once continental connectivity is in place, once listed, OTC, and private placem

One of the most important milestones we’re working toward this year is completing full platform connectivity across the African continent. Not partially. Not selectively. But properly — in a way that respects local markets, regulatory frameworks, and the realities institutions operate within every day. By the end of Q2, our objective is clear: to have Africa fully covered across all investment environments we provide. That starts with what already exists today — access to li

One of the things I’m most looking forward to as we return to Kenya is the opportunity to sit down with clients and partners and talk openly about what’s coming next — not in abstract terms, but in very real, practical detail. 2026 is a pivotal year for Veri. Not just in terms of platform development, but in how we structure and deliver services to meet the evolving needs of institutions across Africa. At the core of what we already provide is live trading capability , which

In Africa, context matters. No two markets are the same. No two institutions operate under identical constraints. And no serious financial business thrives by being forced into a rigid, one-size-fits-all framework. That’s why at Veri, we’ve never seen ourselves as just a technology vendor or a service provider. We see ourselves as a working business partner . When we engage with clients across the continent, the starting point is never the platform. It’s the business. We take

This Sunday, I travel back to Kenya with our CEO and co-founder, Craig Wetton , and it marks our first trip of the year. As always, there’s a genuine sense of excitement — not just about the journey itself, but about what lies ahead. We’re returning to continue conversations, to strengthen relationships, and to crystallise work that has been building over time with clients and soon-to-be clients we’ve met, spoken with, and worked alongside on real solutions. This trip isn’t a

January 16, 2026 East African central banks are entering 2026 with a cautious but optimistic stance. With inflation rates easing to multi-month lows and currencies largely stable, monetary policymakers in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya have opted to hold or even ease their benchmark interest rates. This coordinated trend reflects confidence that price stability can be maintained while providing room for policies that support economic growth in the region. Uganda: Policy Rate Unc

Uganda is on the cusp of a major economic turning point. After years of courting short-term speculative capital – the so-called “hot money” flowing into high-yield local debt – the East African nation expects to begin producing oil in 2026, unlocking long-term foreign direct investment (FDI) and export revenues. Officials and analysts say this oil boom could strengthen Uganda’s balance of payments and reduce reliance on fickle capital flows, but they caution that the transiti

Harare, January 12, 2026 – Zimbabwe’s central bank is touting a rare victory over inflation, as new data show annual price growth plunged to about 15% in December, down from 19% in November and far below the triple-digit rates seen earlier in 2024. Month-on-month inflation has virtually flatlined – rising just 0.2% in December – amid aggressive moves to choke off money supply growth and stabilize the Zimbabwe dollar. The authorities credit an austere monetary stance, includin

Kenya has just placed a big bet on keeping the lights on – without blowing up its public balance sheet. On Monday, the finance ministry signed a $311 million agreement with Africa50 , the Morocco-based pan-African infrastructure fund, and PowerGrid Corporation of India to design, finance, build and operate two new high-voltage electricity transmission lines and associated substations. The deal will be structured as a public-private partnership (PPP) . A project company led

For more than a decade, African governments surfed a global wave of cheap money. From 2007 to 2024, annual sovereign bond issuance in Africa jumped from about US$70 billion to US$350 billion , while the stock of marketable bond debt ballooned from US$160 billion to US$730 billion . Add in domestic borrowing and loans from multilaterals, China and private lenders, and total public debt on the continent has risen more than fourfold to around US$2 trillion . In 2025, the bill is

For decades, a simple rule defined African trade: If a Kenyan company wanted to pay a supplier in Zambia, or a Ghanaian importer needed to settle a bill in Rwanda, the money went on a long, expensive detour through the U.S. dollar and a chain of foreign correspondent banks. In 2025, that rule is being rewritten. Africa’s cross-border payments market is already worth around US$329 billion a year and is projected to more than triple to US$1 trillion by 2035 , according to a ne

In a year when African headlines have been dominated by debt restructurings, currency slumps and rating downgrades, Tanzania has done something unfashionable. It has quietly… behaved. Growth has been robust, inflation low, and its relationship with the IMF not defined by crisis talks, but by steady reviews of a reform programme that is, broadly, on track. At the end of June, the IMF Executive Board signed off on Tanzania’s 2025 Article IV consultation , completed the fifth re

On paper, Zimbabwe’s story in late 2025 looks almost unrecognisable from the crisis headlines of just a few years ago. The World Bank’s latest Zimbabwe Economic Update projects 6.6% GDP growth in 2025 , outpacing most of Sub-Saharan Africa, driven by a rebound in agriculture, services, and renewed investment in mining and steel. Inflation, which has been triple-digit more often than not over the past decade, is now falling sharply : industry data show ZiG-based annual inflat

Kenya is cashing in its crown jewel. In the biggest privatisation move in nearly 20 years, the government has agreed to sell a 15% stake in Safaricom – East Africa’s most valuable company – to Vodacom/Vodafone for roughly $1.6 billion , cutting the state’s holding from 35% to 20% and handing majority control to the South African group. The deal is priced at KES 34 per share , a hefty premium to recent market levels, and includes an upfront payment of about KES 40.2 billion

For years, Senegal was held up as one of West Africa’s “good news” macro stories: steady growth, big infrastructure, a reputation for political stability and reform. Then the numbers changed. In 2024–2025, the new administration revealed billions of dollars in previously undisclosed public borrowing. The IMF now estimates Senegal’s total public sector debt at around 132% of GDP at end-2024 , versus roughly 80% just two years earlier – a jump driven largely by hidden liabiliti

Three years ago, Ghana was the cautionary tale of African finance. After years of heavy borrowing and external shocks, the country defaulted on its international debt in 2022 and scrambled into a $3 billion IMF programme in 2023. Eurobond coupons went unpaid, inflation blew out, the cedi plunged and confidence evaporated. Fast-forward to late 2025 and the headlines look very different. Ghana has: Completed the restructuring of its Eurobonds (around $13 billion) in October 202

Uganda has suddenly become the place where yield-hungry investors go to “squeeze the last drop” out of frontier markets. Offshore holdings of Uganda’s shilling government bonds have surged to around $2.7 billion , about 12% of total domestic government debt – a record high, driven largely by global funds rotating back into high-yield local currency paper. At the same time, the government has pushed out the curve with a 25-year bond , which in its latest auction cleared at a