The African Credit Rating Agency, or AfCRA, was officially launched on 7 October 2026 in Port Louis, in Mauritius, to assess the creditworthiness of African states and companies, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa announced. The agency intends to broaden the information investors use to assess credit risk on the continent.
The ratings assigned to borrowers influence their access to capital markets and the cost at which they can finance themselves. AfCRA is to provide expertise based on African data, complementing the international agencies already present, according to the institutions that supported its creation.
However, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf stressed at the launch that a new agency alone would not be enough to significantly reduce the cost of capital. The quality of economic policies and investor confidence remain central to financing challenges.
The African Union presents AfCRA as a privately led, autonomous and self-financed structure. Governments may not hold shares in it, according to its institutional presentation. The African Peer Review Mechanism supervised its set-up before the transition to independent operation.
The creation of the agency had been approved by the African Union Assembly in 2018. African finance ministers renewed their support in a declaration adopted in Nairobi in July 2023, before work devoted to its governance and methodology in 2024 and 2025.
Based in Mauritius, AfCRA is headed by Sifiso Falala. Its assessment remit must also cover local authorities and other sub-national entities, beyond states and companies, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.