Author: Daniel Cash

The formal launch of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) has required considerable institutional commitment. It brings to fruition an effort that has been almost a decade in the making. In 2017, the African Union gave the African Peer Review Mechanism a mandate to support member states in the field of credit rating agencies. By 2019, African institutions were examining the feasibility of creating an agency of their own. Feasibility and design work followed, then political endorsement of a private-sector-driven model, the selection of Mauritius as its home, and now the launch itself. There is something worth recognising in that…

Africa’s development finance challenge has reached a critical point. Mounting debt pressure is squeezing fiscal space. And essential needs in infrastructure, health and education remain unmet. The continent’s governments urgently need affordable access to international capital markets. Yet many continue to face borrowing costs that make development finance unviable. Sovereign credit ratings – the assessments that determine how financial markets price a country’s risk – play a central role in this dynamic. These judgements about a government’s ability and willingness to repay debt are made by just three main agencies – S&P Global, Moody’s and Fitch. The grades they assign,…