Nigeria, Others Move to Create African Credit Rating Agency
CHIGOZIE AMADI
Nigeria and other African countries are working towards setting up a continental credit rating agency to address Western credit rating agencies’ bias against Africa.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation of Nigeria, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Addis Ababa, ahead of the African Union Summit.
Idris explained: “At the last African Union Assembly, it was agreed that they set up what is called the African Rating Agency, to supplant that being provided by the Western World. Hitherto, access to capital was always difficult for people of the African continent even when we have the population, investment opportunity and projects that are funded.
“So, because funding is key, it becomes very important for all African countries to set up their rating agency. The rating agency set up by the west does not favour Africa.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar said: “We are also one of the major contributing nations in terms of the African Union. We are a tier one country. So, we are very concerned about how those funds that we contribute are spent and applied within the African region and there have been strong agitation for reform. “That is why we have vested interest in making sure that the right kind of leadership is elected for the African Union, so that it carries out the necessary reform and use the African Union as a platform to agitate for all the developing nations for the reform of the global financial structure and the reform of political organisations on the continent.”
