In January 2017, the Assembly of the African Union (AU) Heads of States and Governments adopted a Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.631 (XXVIII) at its 28th Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, directing the African Peer review Mechanism (APRM), a specialised governance entity of the African Union, to provide support to AU member states in the field of Rating Agencies.
The Decision was necessitated by a collective interest among African countries to address the challenge of chronic low credit ratings by the leading three international credit rating agencies - Standard and Poor’s (S&P), Moody’s and Fitch. These low ratings have resulted in countries either having difficulties in accessing global capital markets or incurring huge borrowing costs on international financial markets. Consequently, these challenges impede African countries’ drive for industrialization, infrastructure development and building economic resilience against shocks. The low ratings also exacerbate public debt burden, threatening the sustainability of public debt and access to both international and domestic lines of credit.
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