Naira widens, South Africa solar surge, Ghana CPI

Two months on from the naira’s devaluation, the gap between Nigeria’s official and black market exchange rates is widening again suggesting that the CBN is once again propping up the naira and that policymakers are struggling to shrug off their interventionist tendencies. Elsewhere, worsening electricity outages in South Africa this year have resulted in a surge in imports, and installations, of solar panels but it will still take time for electricity outages to be a thing of the past. Finally, inflation in Ghana rose for a third consecutive month in July, to 43.1% y/y, and we think this will prompt the central bank to deliver another interest rate hike next month.