Fitch Ratings says it will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage for African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for commercial reasons.
The development comes as Fitch in a statement on Wednesday
downgraded the bank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) to ‘BB+’ from
‘BBB-,’ with a stable outlook.
The agency also cut Afreximbank’s short-term issuer default
rating (IDR) to ‘B’ from ‘F3’.
A downgrade means Fitch now considers Afreximbank to have a
higher risk profile than previously assessed.
According to Fitch, the downgrade followed a reassessment of
the bank’s risk profile after Afreximbank reached an agreement with Ghana on
its debt as part of the country’s broader restructuring programme.
The ratings agency said the development led it to revise
Afreximbank’s policy importance risk to ‘medium’ from ‘low’ and reassess its
business profile as ‘high risk’ instead of ‘medium risk’.
Before Fitch’s announcement, Afreximbank had on January 23
formally exited its credit rating relationship with Fitch.
The bank said the “credit rating exercise no longer reflects
a good understanding of the Bank’s Establishment Agreement, its mission and its
mandate”.
According to Fitch, the bank’s inclusion in Ghana’s debt
restructuring, involving a $750 million sovereign loan, underscores its
weakening policy importance.
“Afreximbank and Ghana announced in December 2025 that they
had reached an agreement in principle with respect to Afreximbank’s USD750
million sovereign loan to Ghana,” Fitch said.
“The IMF stated that the deal is in line with the
comparability of treatment under Ghana’s official creditor committee. We view
this as evidence that Afreximbank did not benefit from its preferred creditor
status (PCS).
“While we had not previously given any uplift in our
solvency assessment for PCS, the de-facto preferential treatment in a broader
sense that Afreximbank, along with most other multilateral development banks,
benefit from was previously factored into our assessment of the bank’s policy
importance.
“The bank’s inclusion in Ghana’s restructuring underlines
its weakening policy importance, in our view.”
The agency said its assessment of Afreximbank’s ‘high’
business profile risk reflects concerns around governance and strategy.
Fitch added that the ratings also reflect the bank’s
exposure to a high-risk operating environment marked by weak credit quality,
low income per capita and elevated political risk in its countries of
operation.
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