Tinubu Backs African Credit Rating Agency

President Bola Tinubu has welcomed the African Union's announcement that the African Credit Rating Agency will officially launch on Oct. 7 in Port Louis, Mauritius.

Tinubu said the initiative could help build financial institutions that better understand African economies and their risks. He said he had argued for such an institution in a February 2026 Financial Times article and repeated the case at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, in May.

The Nigerian president said Africa was not seeking preferential treatment from credit assessors. “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.

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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.

Tinubu has criticised the leading role of Fitch, Moody's and S&P Global Ratings in determining African countries' access to international capital. He argued that their assessments can fail to capture local economic conditions and said the so-called Africa premium leaves countries paying too much to borrow.

Citing a 2023 United Nations Development Programme report, he said weaknesses in credit ratings cost Africa about $75 billion a year through excess interest and lending that does not take place. He also said commodity-dependent economies can face downgrades during global market downturns even when their reserves, fiscal buffers and debt positions remain manageable. Tinubu said better economic data, greater fiscal transparency and reforms had contributed to recent upgrades for Nigeria.

He cautioned that AfCRA should not be seen as a replacement for established global agencies. Its success, he said, will depend on whether it can establish independence and produce rigorous assessments trusted by international investors. “AfCRA must now earn the confidence of global capital. That confidence will rest on its independence and the rigour of its work,” he said.

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AfCRA must now earn the confidence of global capital. That confidence will rest on its independence and the rigour of its work.