The Africa Credit Rating Agency has been officially launched in Mauritius, with a presidential aide stating that President Bola Tinubu played a role in pushing for the continental institution.

The agency, known as AfCRA, was officially launched by the African Union in Port Louis, Mauritius, as an Africa-focused institution designed to provide independent assessments of the creditworthiness of African governments, companies and other institutions.

The Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, said the establishment of the agency followed years of advocacy for an African-owned credit rating institution.

He also shared a video of Tinubu advocating for the establishment of an African rating agency at a recent meeting in Kigali. Tinubu said he made the case in a Financial Times article in February and repeated it at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali in May.

Furthermore, the African Union revealed that AfCRA was endorsed by its Assembly in 2018, while the African Peer Review Mechanism was later tasked with supporting the process of turning the initiative into an operational institution.

The AU Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said at the launch that AfCRA would help address gaps in the assessment of African economies and contribute to strengthening the continent’s financial architecture.