Port-Louis

Africa has launched its own credit rating agency, the AfCRA, officially inaugurated on 7 October in Port-Louis, Mauritius. The agency is independent, private and self-financed, with African states barred from holding shares in its capital. The initiative responds to mounting external debt costs: interest payments on African external debt have surged from 61 to 163 billion dollars, a burden critics link partly to ratings issued by the three dominant Western agencies. Supporters see it as a step toward financial sovereignty for the continent.