Abuja – Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has thrown his weight behind the African Union’s announcement that the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) will officially launch on October 7, describing it as a step toward fairer financial treatment for the continent.
Tinubu, who had earlier made the case for such an agency in the Financial Times in February and again at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali in May, said the move was not about securing favourable ratings but fair ones.
“Africa is not asking for favourable ratings. We are asking for fair ratings, grounded in our fundamentals and in the reforms our economies are actually carrying out,” he said.
The push for AfCRA comes amid long-standing frustrations over how the dominant global rating agencies, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch, assess African economies. A Finance in Africa analysis found that only three African countries were rated investment grade in 2025, despite strong growth projections from the IMF. Critics argue that Africa’s credit story is systematically mispriced.
The consequences of that mispricing are not abstract. Data from IPI Global Observatory shows that in 2024, African countries paid roughly 9% interest on dollar-denominated bonds, the highest rate of any emerging region. Latin America averaged 6.5%, while emerging Asia paid just 4.7%.
The OECD Africa Capital Markets Report in 2025 found that around 80% of rated African sovereigns were classified as high-risk, with only Botswana and Mauritius consistently achieving investment-grade status.
AfCRA is expected to begin full operations in early 2027. Tinubu said its credibility would ultimately rest on its independence and the rigour of its assessments.
Leave a comment