The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) has been rated AAA with a stable outlook by a global credit rating agency Fitch.
This was disclosed by the AfDB in a statement published on Tuesday on its website.
“The ‘AAA’ rating of the AfDB is driven by extraordinary support it receives from its shareholders, which Fitch Ratings assess at ‘AAA’. It judged the Bank’s risk management policies as conservative and excellent in line with ‘AAA’ rated regional peers,” the bank said.
Fitch Ratings assessed the Bank’s liquidity profile at ‘AAA’, reflecting an ‘excellent’ liquidity buffer and quality of liquid assets, while the bank’s capitalization is judged strong reflecting strong equity-to-assets ratio.
President, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the bank is delighted to have the credit rating despite the economic downturns and challenges due to the pandemic. He added that the bank will continue strengthening its policy “to support regional member countries, especially during and after the period of COVID-19, while ensuring that we maintain our prudential ratios with adequate buffers.”
READ MORE: Africa’s GDP could fall by 3.4% in 2020 if COVID-19 continues – AfDB
He said the bank will continue its strong risk management policies and is positive the economies in sub-Saharan African will recover and return to positive growth.
AfDB’s Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer, Swazi Tshabalala, said, “The strong support of our shareholders will continue to be critical to allow the Bank to continue to play its leading role in supporting development in Africa”.
The new triple-A rating from Fitch for the bank comes after an earlier triple-A rating from ratings agency, Standard and Poor.
