As frontier markets, the countries of Africa represent tremendous opportunities and tremendous risks. On the risk side of the ledger are all the usual complications of international trade and investment compounded by the problems inherent in a developing, emergent continental market consisting of 54 countries and 1.1 billion people – it’s a lot to keep track of.

Luckily, the ups and downs of the African currency markets aren’t one of them if you know where to look. To help with that, AFKInsider has compiled news you need to know now to slim down your currency risk in the week ahead.

The big news for emerging market currencies was an announcement out of Washington by Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

He said in a press conference Wednesday that the U.S. central bank would not taper off its policy of injecting liquidity into U.S. financial markets via monthly purchase of some $85 billion in bonds and other financial assets anytime in the near future. The U.S. job market, said Bernanke, is “still far from what all of us would like to see.”

Since the Fed had indicated in August that tapering could start as early as September, the news came as a surprise and markets reacted accordingly. Outside Africa, emerging-market currencies such as the Indian rupee and the Indonesian rupiah – battered of late – rallied on the news while, inside Africa, results were more mixed.

Of Africa’s three major currencies – the South African rand, the Nigerian naira, and the Kenyan shilling – the rand benefited the most from the Fed’s tapering surprise. Accordingly, the rand rallied to 9.55 to the dollar on Sept. 19, though it fell back to 9.83 to the dollar by the end of trade on Friday, Sept. 20.

This is the second bit of good news for the rand in less a month. At the end of August the South African government announced that the economy had expanded faster than expected largely due to manufacturing exports – which had been helped by the rand’s fall to 10.50 to the dollar by late August. This low point was the final stop in a pronounced fall in value since the beginning of the year, which saw the rand trading at the 8.50 level in January. While it is too soon to say for sure, these developments may mean the rand could be in for a sustained rally.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the Fed’s announcement may have helped stabilize the naira against a further fall in value given the gloomy picture coming out of the West African giant. The Nigerian currency, which, like the rand, began falling at the beginning of 2013, hit a low of 164.09 to the dollar on Sept. 9, but has since rallied to trade in the 159-to-160-to-the-dollar level.

Whether the naira can remain there is an important question given the problems bedeviling the country. An ongoing decline in crude production, relatively weak global growth, weakening U.S. demand for Nigerian crude, central-government plans to reduce capital expenditures and borrowing, and a deepening conflict in the country’s north by Islamist Boko Haram rebels all suggest that a slowdown in the Nigerian economy may be coming.

Finally, in Kenya, the shilling remained stable after the Fed’s announcement, continuing to trade in the 87.25 – 87.50 range it has been in since mid-July. Even the vicious attack by Somali-based Al-Shabaab Islamist militants on the Westgate mall complex in Nairobi did little to shake the currency, as the shilling has strengthened slightly to 87.17. Still, it remains to be seen just how long this lull in pronounced up-or-down movements in the shilling will last. The shilling reached a similar trading level earlier in the year before strengthening to the 84-to-83-to-the-dollar level, after which central bank intervention forced the currency down again to its current trading range.

Looking ahead, those wary of currency risk should trust in fundamentals. An improvement in the South African economy due to exports, coupled with the Fed’s announcement, could mean the rand could be due for a rally of sorts, especially if the country’s troubled mining sector gets past its ongoing labor troubles.

Kenya looks to remain stable due to the diligence of its central bank, but the shilling could continue to face upward pressure on valuation as East Africa’s economies continue to grow and as oil development money flows in. Finally, the naira, though possibly given a brief respite by the Fed, looks to be weak going forward.

Jeffrey Cavanaugh holds a Ph.D in political science with a specialization in international relations from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Formerly an assistant professor of political science and public administration at Mississippi State University, he writes on global affairs and international economics for AFK Insider, Mint Press News and BAM South.