African Union Officially Launches the Africa Credit Rating Agency in Mauritius
On 7 October 2026, the African Union officially launched the Africa Credit Rating Agency (#AfCRA) in Mauritius. The establishment of AfCRA represents the culmination of nearly a decade of discussions and followed in the wake of the 2nd Annual Conference on Credit Ratings from 5 to 6 October 2026. The event was jointly organized by the African Union African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and Mauritius’ Ministry of Financial Services, with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and was held at the InterContinental Resort Hotel in Balaclava, Mauritius.
African Union Commission Chair Mahmoud Youssouf flew in specially for the event. The Mauritian government was represented by acting President and Vice-President Robert Hungley, the Minister of Financial Services Jyoti Jeetun,and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dhananjay Ramful. Burundi’s PM Nestor Ntahontuye, represented the AU Chair, while Ugandan Minister of State for Finance Amos Lugoloobi, represented the Chair of the APRM Forum. The UN was represented by its Assistant SG Ahunna Eziakonwa also attended the launch ceremony, and the UNECA Deputy Executive Secretary Hanan Morsy. African financing institutions such as Afreximbank, AfDB, AFC and the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) all played a vital role in the setting up of AfCRA.
On the occasion, the interim CEO of AfCRA Sifiso Falala presented of the AfCRA website (www.AfricaCreditRating.com) that has already collected relevant data to determine the sovereign ratings for a number of African countries. The methodologies can be summarized by the AfCRA Wheel, which takes into account macroeconomic parameters as well as other signals to come up with a credit score.
“Over the past few decades, Mauritius has established itself as an International Financial Center that is compliant with norms set by the OECD or ESSAMLG. The choice of Mauritius to host the Africa Credit Rating Agency is thus another vote of confidence in the Mauritius jurisfiction. According to Mauritius’s long-term development roadmap Vision 2050, financial services would contribute nearly one-third of the GDP by 2050, up from 13% currently.”
The core objective of the AfCRA is to offer a perspective rooted in African data, expertise and realities by complementing existing credit rating agencies. The AfCRA will handle sovereign and sub-sovereign entities, including private sector companies. The rating must nevertheless be rigorous, fair and credible to be of value to investors looking at Africa.
As part of its mission to promote good governance in Africa, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was mandated by the AU to operationalize the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA). The APRM contributed to garnering evidence on limitations and biases of the current evaluation system and laid down the technical, operational and instutitional foundation for the AfCRA.”
AU APRM CEO Marie-Antoinette Rose-Quatre
Another key objective is to extend coverage to the whole of Africa. Currently, the Big Three — Fitch, Moody’s and S&P — only produce sovereign ratings for 32 countries in the African Union, leaving out 23 countries in the AU. The need for Africa’s own rating agency is becoming acutely felt as debt service by African countries has skyrocketed from USD 61 billion in 2010 to USD 163 billion in 2024, with no sign of slowing.
According to the landmark study conducted by AfriCatalyst on behalf of the UNDP in 2023, the current rating system costs Africa USD 75 billion annually in inflated borrowing costs and foregone funding opportunities. For instance, a better rating that leads to a drop of 50 basis points in the interest rate could result in a saving of up to USD 5 billion in repayments annually. Indeed, improved sovereign ratings would greatly contribute to mobilizing more capital at a lower cost to catalyze the development of the continent.
As such, the advent of AfCRA is a milestone in the reshaping of the Global Financial Architecture (#GFA) and is aligned with the AU’s Agenda 2063. In his remarks, AUC Chair Youssouf fittingly reminded the audience that #Agenda2063 was largely inspired by the Mauritian Miracle.