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Former President Nana Akufo-Addo has reignited calls for the creation of an African-led credit rating agency, arguing that current global systems unfairly penalise African nations and undermine their development financing prospects.
“At a time when Ghana couldn’t access the international market and funding was virtually impossible, Afreximbank came through with $750 million in 2022,” Nana Akufo-Addo recalled.
“When everyone else turned away, Professor Oramah and his team stood with us. That’s why Ghanaians, and I as former President, will always be grateful to them.”
Beyond the gratitude, however, Akufo-Addo raised fundamental questions about the fairness of global financial structures, particularly how rating agencies assess African economies.
“It is simply not fair. Countries in similar economic positions elsewhere receive better ratings than African countries, just because they’re not African,” he said.
“We are constantly forced to pay higher risk premiums based on skewed assessments.”
His comments come in the wake of Fitch’s recent downgrade of Afreximbank’s credit rating to just one notch above junk, citing, among other reasons, Ghana and Zambia’s indication that they would include Afreximbank debt in their commercial debt restructuring plans.
Ghana, however, insists the bank does not meet the multilateral lender definition under the IMF’s Common Framework and should be treated like other commercial creditors.
“We cannot develop our continent when the levers of financing are not in our hands,” he said, adding that African nations must build and support institutions like the Afreximbank and the African Development Bank.
He reiterated a proposal he made at a recent African Union summit, urging African countries to deposit 30% of their sovereign reserves with African multilateral institutions.
“These funds are sitting idle in foreign accounts earning next to nothing, while our countries struggle to finance infrastructure and development.”
