Can African Leaders Rate Themselves?

As African leaders revive talks on the establishment of a Pan-African credit rating agency, an analyst has questioned the viability of such a project. This week, Senegal’s president and current chairperson of the African Union, Macky Sall, called for the establishment of the rating agency due to what he explained as the problematic nature of the system of assessment by international organisations. The idea has been part of the continent’s discourse for decades now as leaders complained that it is expensive for countries to borrow from global debt markets. Institute for Security Studies Southern Africa’s project leader, Liesl Louw-Vaudran, said that the old notion of forming a Pan-African credit rating agency could prove a challenge for the continent’s countries. She explained that the need for such institutions to be independent or perceived to be so was among the hurdles it could face.

SOURCE: EWN