African Markets - Factors to watch on March 23

The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Friday.

- - - - - EVENTS: *IMF&Rwanda discuss growth outlook for 2018

GLOBAL MARKETS The rumblings of a global trade war sent shivers through stock and currency markets on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced long-promised tariffs on Chinese goods and China retaliated with a pledge to fight to the end any such war. MKTS/GLOB

WORLD OIL PRICES Oil prices jumped more than 1 percent on Friday, pushed up by Saudi plans for OPEC and Russian led production curbs introduced in 2017 to be extended into 2019 in order to tighten the market. O/R

EMERGING MARKETS For the top emerging markets news, double click on STOCKS For the latest news on African stocks, click on .J

SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS South Africa's rand weakened on Thursday as investors treaded cautiously and booked recent profits ahead of Moody's review of the country's sovereign credit rating on Friday.

CENTRAL BANK Nigeria's senate approved the appointment of two deputy central bank governors and three members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Thursday, giving the rate-setting panel sufficient numbers to meet for the first time this year. BONDS Nigeria raised 64.06 billion naira ($210 million) at Wednesday's auction of government bonds 0#NGTSY= , less than it originally planned but at lower yields, traders said.

TELEOLOGY Teleology Holdings has agreed to buy 9mobile, Nigeria's fourth largest telecoms provider, the investment firm said on Thursday.

SECURITY Islamist insurgents arrived in the northeastern Nigerian town of Rann on March 1. Ignoring the camp for 55,000 people displaced by the region's conflict, they stormed the nearby military base.

ECONOMY Nigeria needs to boost investment in social infrastructure to lift its population out of poverty and achieve a higher income status, billionaire Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) co-founder Bill Gates told Reuters on Thursday. TRADE Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, signalled its opposition to a continental free trade zone, saying it would defend its own businesses and industry.

CURRENCIES The Kenyan shilling, Ghanaian cedi and the Zambian kwacha are expected to gain next week. The Ugandan shilling will come under pressure.

MARKETS Kenya's shilling KES= rose to its highest in nearly five weeks on Thursday, helped by dollar inflows from investors abroad into the stock market, traders said. ECONOMY The proportion of Kenyans living in poverty has fallen by 10.5 percentage points in a decade, to 36.1 percent, the statistics office said on Thursday.

EQUITY BANK Kenya's Equity Group Holdings EQTY.NR doubled its rate of profit growth last year and expects its subsidiaries to make a bigger contribution to group profit this year, its chief executive officer said on Thursday.

CHAD/OIL British prosecutors will recover 4.4 million pounds ($6.2 million) from a corruption case in which a Canadian energy company bribed Chadian diplomats in North America, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Thursday following a court ruling. BLAST At least 14 people were killed in an explosion outside a busy hotel in Somalia's capital on Thursday that was followed by gunfire, police and rescue services said.

GENEL ENERGY Kurdistan-focused Genel Energy GENL.L might start drilling in Somaliland next year, Chief Executive Murat Ozgul said on Thursday, as the group reported 2017 results broadly in line with expectations.

MINING A Cypriot investor signed a $4.2 billion deal on Thursday to develop a platinum mine and refinery in Zimbabwe, an investment that President Emmerson Mnangagwa said showed the country was "open for business".

POLITICS Cameroon's former water and energy minister was arrested in Nigeria and flown home on Thursday, a police source and local media said, amid a crackdown on high-level corruption.

MIGRANTS Algeria has repatriated 27,000 sub-Saharan African migrants since 2015 and will continue to send them back to their home countries despite criticism from rights groups, interior minister Nouredine Bedoui said on Thursday.

SECURITY A U.N. peacekeepers' camp near Kidal in Mali came under mortar fire on Thursday, the U.N. mission said, shortly before a scheduled visit by the prime minister, the first to the northern city by a top government official for four years.

MARKETS The Ugandan shilling UGX= inched down on Thursday, undercut by strong demand for dollars from firms in the manufacturing and energy sectors.

COFFEE Uganda's coffee shipments remained broadly unchanged in February compared with the same month last year, the state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said on Thursday.

SUDAN OIL U.S. sanctions on 15 South Sudanese oil operators will work against efforts to restore peace and stability in the nation, the government said on Thursday.

JOBS Mastercard Foundation, a private Canada-based charity, said on Thursday it will invest $100 million in Rwanda to train young people with skills in order to reduce unemployment. CRUDE Gabon plans to revise its hydrocarbons law to attract new investment, the oil ministry said on Thursday.

PEACEKEEPERS The United Nations closed its peacekeeping mission to Liberia on Thursday, 15 years after it was deployed in the aftermath of two civil wars that ended with the fall of then-president Charles Taylor.

CORRUPTION Former Madagascar finance minister Jean Razafindravonona is being held in pre-trial detention over misappropriation of public funds, the country's anti-graft office said on Thursday.

BOND Ghana scooped all 1.57 billion cedis ($356.3 million) tendered for a three-year domestic bond on Thursday and will pay a yield of 16.5 percent, joint transaction arrangers said. LEONE ELECTION Election authorities in Sierra Leone accused police late on Wednesday of intimidating staff and obstructing their work as they prepared for next week's presidential run-off vote.

CORRUPTION A former Zambian cabinet minister who has repeatedly accused government officials of corruption will appear in court on Friday on corruption charges himself, a spokesman for the country's anti-graft agency said.