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Vol 67 No 5

Published 6th March 2026


Ratings war – Africa fights back

Fitch’s junk downgrade and withdrawal from Afreximbank highlight a wider battle over how global ratings agencies judge African lenders

An African bank and one of the ‘big three’ ratings agencies have fired their latest salvoes in a broader struggle over how the global financial system treats the continent. On 28 January, Fitch announced that it was withdrawing its credit rating of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) after downgrading it to junk status. Five days earlier, the bank had ended its relationship with Fitch, citing the agency’s failure to understand its role as a multilateral policy bank focused on African economic development.

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