The African Development Bank (AfDB) is to launch an initiative to help African countries better prepare for sovereign credit rating assessments, AfDB President Sidi Ould Tah announced on Thursday at an emerging markets conference hosted by rating agency S&P in London.
“What Africa lacks is data and infrastructure. The lack of transparency in some markets creates a perception of high risk, which leads to higher financing costs,” Sidi Ould Tah said.
African leaders have argued for several years that financing costs on the continent are excessively high and do not always reflect the underlying economic conditions of individual countries. The three major international credit rating agencies — Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch — maintain that they apply the same assessment criteria across different markets.
According to Sidi Ould Tah, the AfDB will shortly launch, through the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), an initiative designed to assist African countries in preparing for credit rating reviews, specifically by improving data quality and strengthening transparency.
The AfDB president added that securing better credit ratings is a shared concern across the continent, where only three of Africa’s 54 countries currently hold an investment-grade rating.
Separately, the African Peer Review Mechanism, an initiative backed by the African Union, plans to launch a continent-wide credit rating agency this month, with the stated objective of helping to reduce the high financing costs faced by African sovereigns.
The AfDB is also leading continent-wide efforts to promote domestic resource mobilisation. In this context, Sidi Ould Tah said he had held meetings with a range of stakeholders, including pension funds and banks, aimed at identifying and removing obstacles to capital market development and the channelling of financial resources within the continent.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/10/01/mundo/africa/africa-bad-quer-ajudar-paises-a-gerir-notacoes-de-credito/
