The Sable Daily Brief | 3 November 2026

WHAT MATTERS ACROSS AFRICA

Botswana’s stock exchange is seeing its busiest stretch of new listings in a decade, with Stanbic Bank Botswana offering 20% of the lender to local investors. In Cairo, Banque du Caire began trading after Egypt’s largest share sale, while monthly surveys showed Nigeria’s private sector still expanding and South Africa’s factories edging toward growth. Senegal’s lawmakers were called back to vote on a disputed budget.

Sable | Tuesday, 3 November 2026

BOTSWANA | STANBIC BANK BOTSWANA OFFERS 20% OF ITSELF TO LOCAL INVESTORS

Stanbic Bank Botswana, a unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, is selling a 20% stake through an initial public offering that will list the lender on the Botswana Stock Exchange. The offer comprises 319.4 million existing shares at 4.30 pula ($0.30) each, worth about 1.37 billion pula ($94 million), and values the whole bank at about 6.87 billion pula ($472 million). The seller is Stanbic Africa Holdings, the Standard Bank subsidiary that owns the bank, and it will keep 80%. Because no new shares are being issued, the money goes to the selling shareholder and Stanbic Bank Botswana receives no proceeds.

Selected institutional investors are taking 255.5 million shares, or 16% of the bank, in a private placement worth about 1.10 billion pula ($75.5 million). The remaining 63.9 million shares, or 4%, are open to the public and worth about 274.7 million pula ($18.9 million). The public offer opened on 30 October and closes on 27 November, with trading expected to begin on 7 December, subject to regulatory approvals. The bank said the listing aims to broaden local ownership and deepen participation in Botswana’s capital markets. It is the third share offer on the exchange in recent weeks, after a decade with no new listings.

EGYPT | BANQUE DU CAIRE MAKES RECORD MARKET DEBUT

Banque du Caire shares began trading on the Egyptian Exchange on Monday after a 36.37 billion Egyptian pound ($654 million) offering. The Central Bank of Egypt described it as the largest IPO in the bourse’s history. State-owned Banque Misr sold 6.86 billion existing shares, or 45% of the lender, at 5.30 pounds ($0.10) each, which values the whole bank at about 80.8 billion pounds ($1.45 billion). An initial public offering is the first time a company’s shares are sold to outside investors and listed for trading. Because these were existing shares, the money goes to Banque Misr rather than to Banque du Caire, and Banque Misr keeps a controlling 55%.

The public tranche was subscribed about 27 times, according to the exchange. Central bank Governor Hassan Abdalla said the offering drew more than $500 million in funds transferred from abroad. The listing came four days after the central bank raised its key policy rates by 100 basis points, its first increase since March 2024. It forms part of the government’s programme to sell stakes in state companies. Banque du Caire reported a net profit of 8.94 billion pounds ($161 million) in the first half of 2026.

NIGERIA | PRIVATE SECTOR GROWS FOR A NINTH MONTH AS FUEL LIFTS PRICES

Nigeria’s private sector expanded for a ninth straight month in October, though more slowly. The Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria PMI eased to 55.7 from 56.4 in September, according to the survey released on Monday. The PMI, or purchasing managers’ index, asks about 400 companies whether their orders, output, hiring and stocks rose or fell during the month. A reading above 50 means conditions improved. September’s reading had been the highest since February 2022.

New orders and output kept rising, but at softer rates. Hiring grew at its weakest pace in three months: agriculture and manufacturing added staff, while wholesale, retail and services cut jobs. Higher fuel costs pushed input price inflation to a four-month high, and companies raised selling prices at the fastest pace in four months, the survey showed. Stanbic IBTC kept its forecast for the economy to grow 4.27% in 2026 and 4.65% in 2027, after 4.16% in the first half of this year.

SOUTH AFRICA | FACTORY GAUGE RISES FOR A SECOND MONTH, STILL BELOW 50

South Africa’s manufacturing sector moved closer to growth in October. The seasonally adjusted Absa PMI rose 0.9 points to 49.6 from a revised 48.7 in September, its second monthly gain and the highest reading since May. All five components of the index improved, Absa said, but the overall figure stayed below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. Nigeria’s survey covers the whole private sector, while the Absa index tracks factories only.

The business activity index rose to 48.6 from 47.7, recovering from an August low of 41.5, and new sales orders stood at 46.8. Employment remained weak and purchasing prices climbed. Absa linked the price rise to the sharp fuel price increase at the start of October and a weaker rand. The index of expected business conditions in six months fell to 51.7 from 55.3, ahead of local government elections on Wednesday.

MOROCCO | SOLAR FIRM JET ENERGY OPENS IPO TO RAISE UP TO $38 MILLION

Subscriptions for Jet Energy’s initial public offering on the Casablanca Stock Exchange opened on Monday and run until 15:30 on Thursday, 5 November. The solar and energy storage installer is a subsidiary of listed builder Jet Contractors. It is issuing 2,625,000 new shares at 125 to 143 dirhams ($12.75 to $14.58) each, which would raise between 328.1 million and 375.4 million dirhams ($33.5 million to $38.3 million). The figures come from the prospectus approved by market regulator AMMC on 21 October. The offer is a capital increase, meaning new shares are created, so the money raised goes to the company itself.

Jet Energy’s revenue rose from 143 million dirhams ($14.6 million) in 2023 to 230 million dirhams ($23.5 million) in 2024 and 340 million dirhams ($34.7 million) in 2025, according to its reference document. Net profit grew to 71 million dirhams ($7.2 million) in 2025 from 51 million dirhams ($5.2 million) in 2024. The final price is due on 11 November, and the shares are scheduled to start trading on 16 November under the ticker NRJ.

KENYA | FAMILY BANK JOINS NSE BANKING INDEX AHEAD OF FIRST LOCAL ETF

The Nairobi Securities Exchange added Family Bank to its Banking Sector Index with effect from Monday, raising the number of lenders in the benchmark to 12. The index launched on 1 October 2025 with 11 banks. It weights each lender by the value of its shares available for public trading, so larger banks move it more. Family Bank listed on the exchange in June 2026.

The WSA Banking ETF, which is designed to track the index, will therefore include Family Bank. An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is a single listed security that holds a basket of shares, so an investor can buy exposure to all 12 banks in one trade. The Capital Markets Authority approved the fund on 11 August as the first ETF created and domiciled in Kenya, and the exchange gave conditional listing approval in September. Its issuer, Wall Street Africa, has said it is targeting 5 billion to 7 billion shillings ($39 million to $54 million) in assets at launch.

GHANA | CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR PLEDGES STABLE CEDI INTO CHRISTMAS

Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama told the African Virtual Assets Summit on Monday that the exchange rate would hold steady through the Christmas season, a period of heavier household and business spending. He did not give a target rate or announce new measures. The central bank’s interbank rate, based on Friday’s close, put the cedi at 11.61 to the dollar for buying and 11.63 for selling. The interbank rate is the price at which banks trade currency with one another, and it anchors the rates businesses pay.

The bank launches its Heritage Series of cedi banknotes on Tuesday at its Bank Square headquarters. It has said the redesigned notes, which carry stronger security features, will circulate alongside existing notes, and those remain legal tender. The Bank of Ghana is also implementing the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025. The law requires crypto exchanges and other virtual asset businesses to obtain central bank authorisation, and the bank set up a coordinating committee for it in August.

SENEGAL | LAWMAKERS CALLED TO VOTE ON DISPUTED REVISED BUDGET

Senegal’s National Assembly said on Monday it had called lawmakers to a plenary session at 10:00 on Tuesday to examine the government’s revised 2026 budget, bill 40/2026. A revised budget, known in French as a loi de finances rectificative, updates the year’s spending and revenue plans after they have been approved. The Assembly’s finance committee rejected the bill on 23 October. On 27 October the government asked for it to be sent back to committee for further talks, and the committee rejected it again on 30 October.

Economy and Finance Minister Cheikh Diba is due to present the bill. In a statement on 31 October, his ministry said it took note of the committee’s decision and regretted that no formal amendments or counterproposals had been put forward. The revised budget carries measures linked to a proposed $2.2 billion, three-year programme with the International Monetary Fund.

TANZANIA | ZANZIBAR HOTELS REACH DEADLINE TO LINK SYSTEMS TO TAX PLATFORM

Hotels and other accommodation businesses in Zanzibar had until Monday to run property management software approved by the Zanzibar Revenue Authority and connect it to the authority’s Virtual Fiscal Management System. The requirement comes under Legal Notice No. 106 of 2026. The fiscal system records sales electronically as they happen, so the tax authority sees revenue as it is earned rather than waiting for periodic returns. Companies that build, run or maintain such software for the sector must also obtain the authority’s approval and integrate their products.

The authority announced the requirement in a public notice on 25 August, and failing to comply is an offence under the law. A separate notice issued on 4 June requires VAT-registered businesses that claim input tax on local purchases to report those purchases through the same system. Input tax is the VAT a business pays on its own purchases, which it can deduct from the VAT it charges customers.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Egypt’s October PMI, compiled by S&P Global, is due on Tuesday morning, after the index fell to 47.2 in September. In Nairobi, the NCBA Economic Forum meets on Tuesday.

South Africans vote in local government elections on Wednesday. The same day brings October PMI readings from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Ghana, completing the month’s business surveys across the continent’s largest tracked economies.

Safaricom reports results for the six months to September on Thursday, 5 November, the same day Jet Energy’s subscription period closes in Casablanca. The Bank of Uganda’s Monetary Policy Committee meets on 12 November. It will be the committee’s first scheduled meeting since a special session on 14 October raised the central bank rate to 12% from 9.75%.

Sable Daily brings together the developments shaping Africa’s businesses, markets, and economies, so you can stay informed and make sense of what is happening across the continent