By Lizzy Chirkpi
President Bola Tinubu has welcomed the planned launch of the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), describing it as a significant step towards building financial institutions capable of better understanding and accurately assessing African economies.
The African Union (AU) has announced that AfCRA will officially launch on October 7.
Tinubu, in a statement shared on Thursday on his official X account, said the establishment of the agency was consistent with his longstanding advocacy for an African credit-rating institution capable of providing assessments grounded in the continent’s economic realities.
The President recalled that he made the case for an African credit-rating agency in an article published by the Financial Times in February and reiterated the call in May at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
“In February, I made the case in the Financial Times for an African credit rating agency. In May, at the Africa CEO Forum @africaceoforum in Kigali, I spoke again about the need for Africa to build financial institutions that understand our economies and can assess our risks properly,” Tinubu said.
He said the launch of AfCRA represented another step towards achieving that objective.
“AfCRA is another step towards that goal,” he said.
Tinubu stressed that African countries were not seeking preferential treatment from credit-rating agencies but wanted assessments that accurately reflected their economic fundamentals and the reforms being implemented across the continent.
“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,” the President said.
He, however, acknowledged that the credibility of the new agency would ultimately depend on its ability to earn the confidence of international investors and global capital.
“AfCRA must now earn the confidence of global capital. That confidence will rest on its independence and the rigour of its work,” Tinubu said.
The President expressed anticipation for the agency’s official launch on October 7, saying, “I look forward to October 7.”
AfCRA is being established as an African-owned credit-rating institution to assess the creditworthiness and investment risks of African governments, businesses and other entities.
Its proponents argue that an institution rooted in African economic realities could provide a more nuanced assessment of the continent’s economies, while maintaining the independence and analytical rigour required to command the confidence of investors and global capital markets.
The agency is expected to provide an African-owned alternative for assessing sovereign and corporate credit risks, with the broader objective of improving how African economies and businesses are perceived and evaluated in international financial markets.