The Africa Credit Rating Agency has been officially launched in Mauritius, with a presidential aide saying 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, on Wednesday 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.

“While the idea of having an African Credit Rating Agency was first proposed in 2017, recent advocacy and push by President Tinubu has now made it a reality,” Olusegun said in a post on X on Thursday.

He added, “Since he emerged as President of Nigeria, Africa has taken front row in shaping its own history with the establishment of various institutions including the African Energy Bank which is set to be headquartered in Abuja.”

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.

The African Union said 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 said AfCRA is intended to complement, rather than replace, international credit rating agencies by providing assessments based on African data, expertise and economic realities.

The agency is expected to rate African sovereigns, sub-sovereigns, companies and institutions.

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.

He stressed that the agency would not be established to guarantee favourable ratings for African countries but would be expected to provide independent, evidence-based and technically rigorous assessments.

AfCRA is headquartered in Port Louis, Mauritius, which the AU said was selected because of the country’s financial services sector, regulatory framework and connectivity with African and international markets.