AU to launch African Credit Rating Agency on October 7

The African Union (AU) has announced that the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) will be officially launched on October 7, 2026.

This marks a significant step in the continent’s efforts to strengthen its financial independence and reshape perceptions of African credit risk.

The announcement was made in a post on the AU’s official X account on Wednesday.

The launch event will take place in Port Louis, Mauritius, where the agency is headquartered.

What they are saying

Describing the initiative as a landmark achievement for Africa’s financial sovereignty, the AU said AfCRA was established to address long-standing concerns about how African economies are assessed by global credit rating agencies.

• “For decades, skewed risk perceptions have forced African nations to pay an unfair ‘risk premium’ on global capital.
• “The African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), headquartered in Mauritius, is created to rewrite that narrative with context-driven credit opinions for sovereign and corporate entities,” the AU stated.

In a video accompanying the announcement, the Union noted that Africa’s economies have historically been evaluated within a global financial system that often fails to fully reflect the continent’s realities, resilience, and growth potential.

• “AfCRA is our response. A bold assertion of African agency, financial sovereignty and institutional confidence. It is a powerful answer to the pessimism that too often defines perceptions of Africa.”

The AU added that the agency demonstrates Africa’s ability to build its own institutions, shape its own narratives, and take greater control of its economic future.

Get up to speed

AfCRA was initially scheduled for launch in September 2025 and is designed to provide an alternative African perspective to the dominant global rating agencies — Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings.

• The initiative emerged from growing concerns among African governments and policymakers over the way sovereign credit risks on the continent are assessed and priced by international agencies.
• Several countries, including Ghana and Zambia, have argued that repeated credit downgrades contributed to higher borrowing costs and worsened debt challenges.
• More recently, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) criticised Fitch Ratings over its downgrade of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), alleging that the assessment reflected a misunderstanding of African financial institutions.

Fitch, however, defended its methodology, maintaining that its ratings are based on globally consistent and transparent criteria.

To safeguard its credibility and independence, AfCRA will not be owned by African governments. The agency is also expected to focus primarily on ratings for local-currency debt instruments.

What you should know

The launch follows renewed calls from African leaders for greater control over the continent’s financial narrative.

Earlier this year, President Bola Tinubu advocated the creation of an Africa-owned credit rating agency, arguing that African countries continue to face excessive borrowing costs due to inaccurate assessments of their economic risks.

In an opinion article published by the Financial Times, Tinubu warned that the so-called “Africa premium” — the gap between perceived and actual risk — continues to inflate the cost of capital for many African economies.

He argued that Africa’s access to global capital markets remains heavily influenced by the decisions of Fitch Ratings, Moody’s, and S&P Global Ratings, whose assessments often shape investor sentiment but may not fully capture local economic realities.