African currencies week ahead: Kenya's unit to strengthen, Tanzania's to hold steady

NAIROBI: Kenya's currency is expected to trade stronger against the dollar in the coming week, while Tanzania's is seen steady as Uganda's weakens.

KENYA - The Kenyan shilling is expected to strengthen against the dollar next week, helped by inflows from the diaspora, a trader at a commercial bank said.

At 0830 GMT on Thursday, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 107.65/85 to the dollar, compared to last Thursday's close of 107.70/90.

TANZANIA - Tanzania's shilling is expected to hold steady with inflows from investors and international lenders likely to meet demand from manufacturing and energy importers.

Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2,314/2,324 against the dollar, the same levels recorded a week earlier.

"With the approval of $293 million of funding for an infrastructure project in Zanzibar by the World Bank, we expect dollar inflows to support a stable outlook for the shilling in the coming week amid dollar demand from the manufacturing and energy sectors," said Terry Karanja, a treasury associate at AZA, a Nairobi-based FX firm.

UGANDA - The Ugandan shilling is seen weakening in the coming days, undercut by a rebound in demand by players in the interbank market.

At 1014 GMT commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,550/3,560, compared to last Thursday's close of 3,529/3,539.

"We are starting to see appetite in the interbank market coming back...this will probably be the trend over next couple of days," said a trader at one commercial bank.

He said last week's central bank monetary policy easing was expected to drive interbank appetite for hard currency.

ZAMBIA - The Kwacha is likely to stay range-bound against the dollar next week with a bias towards marginal depreciation, weighed down by an inadequate hard currency supply. On Thursday, commercial banks quoted the currency of Africa's second largest copper producer at 22.5700 per dollar, almost the same as 22.5600 at which it closed a week ago.

"Interim trends suggest that the local unit will likely trade between 22.6000 and 22.8200 in the short to medium term," Access Bank said in a note.