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Zambia's Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane asked parliament on 22 October to approve a second supplementary budget for 2026 worth about $990 million, three-quarters of it to pay farmers who sold maize to the state Food Reserve Agency (FRA). The agency bought 2.7 million tonnes this year against a target of 500,000 tonnes, as a bumper harvest met a state price well above private buyers' offers. The government will raise about $890 million of the extra spending by borrowing on the domestic market, while building grain reserves before an expected El Niño drought in 2027. The stockpile protects food supply, but financing it with local debt increases the state's draw on domestic savings and its interest bill.
Foreign-controlled banks made up 57.4% of the 54 banks in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) at the end of 2025, down from 67.9% a year earlier, according to the annual report of the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC), released on 22 October. Their number fell from 38 to 31, while banks owned by private national investors rose from six to ten. The shift follows Société Générale's exit from Cameroon, Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, where its units passed to the state or to African groups. Local owners now control a larger share of a sector whose lending to governments rose 19.9% in 2025, tying banks more closely to public finances.
