Africa launches own credit rating agency to challenge Moody’s, S&P and Fitch

The African Union has launched the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), the continent’s first, in a bid to change how global markets judge African economies and how much those economies pay to borrow.

The agency was launched in Port Louis, Mauritius, on Wednesday, where it will be headquartered. The launch was held alongside the second Annual African Conference on Credit Ratings.

The AU said AfCRA complements existing global credit rating agencies by offering a perspective rooted in African data, expertise and realities. It will rate sovereign borrowers, financial institutions and private companies, operate independently, and be funded through shareholder capital and its own operations.

It is expected to focus primarily on local-currency debt, a market where rating coverage remains limited. The agency will also widen coverage of the continent. According to the AU, 23 African economies currently lack a rating from the three big agencies.

A long-running grievance

The agency grows out of years of frustration with Moody’s, S&P Global and Fitch. African governments have long complained that their ratings overestimate risk and saddle them with high borrowing costs.

The criticism has at times been blunt. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has said the global agencies “deliberately failed Africa.” In 2022, Senegal’s then-president Macky Sall, as chairman of the AU, called for a new system to end what he described as injustices faced by African countries.

The big agencies reject the charge of bias, saying they apply the same methods worldwide. A 2024 Reuters investigation into Africa’s debt crisis found no evidence of systemic bias in their sovereign ratings.

AfCRA has been a long time coming. AU leaders first endorsed it in 2018 and backed it again in a 2023 declaration in Nairobi. The launch, originally set for September 2025, was postponed.

The project has been driven by the African Peer Review Mechanism, an AU body, with support from the UN Economic Commission for Africa and African financial institutions. Plus94, a South African research firm, is providing technical support.

AU Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called the launch a milestone, but stressed that the agency must stay independent to win the confidence of investors and markets.

The real test

Analysts say credibility will decide AfCRA’s fate. Rating agencies take years to build trust, and AfCRA has no track record yet. Its ratings will matter only if investors, regulators and borrowers accept them.

If they do, it could improve access to independent credit assessments across African markets, especially for local-currency debt.

The launch is part of a wider AU push for common action on debt. That includes the planned inauguration of an African Monetary Institute in Abuja in late October, intended as a precursor to a regional central bank.