The Senegalese Head of State judges the “sometimes very arbitrary” assessments of international agencies which exaggerate the risk of investment in Africa.
Le Monde with AFP
The Senegalese Head of State Macky Sall, President in office of the African Union (AU), calls for the creation of an African financial rating agency in the face of “sometimes very arbitrary” assessments of international agencies that exaggerate The risk of investment in Africa which adds the cost of credit.
m. Sall spoke of “the need for injustices, sometimes very arbitrary ratings, to have a Pan -African rating agency”, in a speech broadcast on Sunday, May 15 on RFM private radio. He expressed himself the day before at the Dakar 2022 economic conference organized by African economists on the theme L’Aférique Leader partner.
Interest rates too high
“In 2020, when all economies suffered the effects of COVVI-19, 18 of the 32 African countries noted by at least one of the major evaluation agencies have seen their degraded rating. This represents 56 % of ratings Degraded for African countries against a global average of 31 % during the period, “he said.
“Studies have shown that at least 20 % of the rating criteria for African countries are subject to rather subjective cultural or linguistic factors, unrelated to the parameters that gauge the stability of an economy”, a- he still estimated.
one of the consequences is that “the perception of the risk of investment in Africa remains always higher than the real risk. We thus find ourselves to pay more than it takes insurance premiums, which adds the credit granted to our countries “. “We continue to pay very high interest rates due to an inequitable system for assessing the risk of investment in Africa,” he insisted.