By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 4 (Radarr Africa) – The African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) aims to publish its first sovereign credit ratings before the end of March 2027, its interim chief executive has said.
Interim CEO Sifiso Falala told Reuters that the agency is in talks with 15 African sovereigns, according to a Nairametrics report published on November 3. Falala said the agency would be in a position “before the end of March, to have released results”, the report said.
The agency plans research on Togo, Kenya, Seychelles, Burundi and Mauritius, among others, according to the report.
AfCRA will issue solicited ratings, meaning governments pay for the assessments and give the agency access to officials and financial data, Nairametrics reported. It also plans to assess African multilateral lenders, including Afreximbank, and private financial institutions.
African governments have long complained that global ratings do not adequately reflect economic conditions and development potential, Nairametrics said. The report cited estimates from Falala that Africa’s debt stands at about $1.9 trillion and that African borrowers pay about $75 billion a year more in interest than borrowers elsewhere.
African Union figures cited in the report show the continent’s annual external debt-service bill rising from $61 billion in 2010 to $163 billion in 2024. The report also cited a United Nations estimate, which Nairametrics reported on October 8, that inaccurate and context-poor sovereign ratings cost African countries about $74.5 billion a year.
S&P Global Ratings projected in March 2026 that commercial long-term borrowing by African sovereigns would rise to $155 billion in 2026, from $140 billion in 2025, Nairametrics said. S&P attributed the rise to maturing debt and fiscal needs and cited a narrow investor base and small domestic markets as constraints.
Nairametrics set out a timeline for the initiative. The African Union Assembly endorsed the idea in 2018. In July 2023, African finance and planning ministers adopted a declaration in Nairobi supporting AfCRA.
Between 2024 and 2025, frameworks, governance arrangements and rating methodologies were developed under the African Peer Review Mechanism, the report said. In February 2026, President Bola Tinubu called for an African-owned rating agency, arguing that global markets misprice the continent’s risk, according to the same timeline.
The African Union formally unveiled AfCRA on October 7, 2026, after Nairametrics had reported in September that the unveiling was scheduled for that date.
Falala said the release was on schedule, according to Nairametrics. The report did not say which of the 15 sovereigns in discussions had agreed to be rated, what fees AfCRA would charge, or which methodology would be used for the first assessments.
The report also did not say how global investors or the established agencies had responded to the plan. Nairametrics noted that solicited ratings carry a different structure from unsolicited ones, because governments commission and pay for them.
The African Union figures imply that the annual external debt-service bill rose by about 167 per cent between 2010 and 2024, a Radarr Africa calculation from the $61 billion and $163 billion totals reported by Nairametrics.
The Nairametrics article was written by Emmanuel Azubuike, and the core interview was given to Reuters.
