Credit rating imperialism: The struggle for sovereignty

The power to define risk, credibility and prudence remains concentrated in the Global North, while the costs are borne mainly by the Global South

- Oluwaseun James Oguntuase

Unjust system: The African Export-Import Bank in Abuja, Nigeria. Africa needs to pursue financial decolonisation with the same commitment as its forefathers dedicated to achieving political independence.

(Photo: Afreximbank)

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a pan-African multilateral financial institution established in 1993 with the mandate to finance and promote trade both within Africa and between Africa and other regions.

In January 2026, it terminated its credit rating relationship with Fitch Ratings after a prolonged dispute over a downgrade that edged the bank towards "junk" status.

Afreximbank maintained that Fitch had misunderstood its treaty-based mandate and its preferred creditor protections, effectively assessing it as a commercial lender rather than a pan-African development institution with a unique public-interest role.

In a statement, the African Union’s African Peer Review Mechanism said it viewed Afreximbank’s decision as justified, cautioning that further unsolicited ratings from Fitch could mislead investors and distort perceptions of African development finance.

Although Afreximbank retains investment-grade ratings from other agencies, mainstream commentary treated the clash with Fitch as a narrow technical quarrel over metrics and models.

That misses the point.

The standoff is about power: who gets to define financial risk in Africa, whose knowledge counts and by what standards Africa’s development institutions are judged.

The episode revives longstanding but newly urgent questions: Who ultimately controls the narrative of Africa's creditworthiness? What does the control mean for the continent's development, sovereignty and future?

Credit rating agencies present themselves as neutral arbiters of financial risk. In reality, they are among the most powerful unelected actors in the global economy.