Pan-African credit rating agency, Agusto & Co, has launched operations in Ghana following approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Representatives of Agusto & Co welcomed officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission at its office, situated on the 7th Floor of the Accra Atlantic Towers, and paid a courtesy visit to the Ghana Stock Exchange on Wednesday, 3 April 2024, state publication the Daily Graphic reported.
The rating agency has been operating since January 1992, with offices in Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda. The opening of the Ghana office perhaps comes at a moment when President Akufo-Addo, has been one of the unhappy individuals over the “biased work” of global rating agencies when it has to do with African countries.
Some of the criticisms are that agencies are quick to downgrade African countries but slow when upgrades are due; that they fail to accurately account for risk perception; that they don’t consult adequately with stakeholders; and that they lack independence and objectivity, wrote Misheck Mutize, a Post Doctoral Researcher at the University of Cape Town.
Join our WhatsApp Channel for more news
Last year, when the African Union (AU) announced plans to establish its own rating agency, Ghana supported that call. President Akufo-Addo who supported the cause, highlighted that it’s an important step towards accelerating continental integration and enabling AU member states to access capital and integrate the continent with global financial markets.
In 2022, at the height of Ghana’s economic crisis, all the big three rating agencies downgraded the country’s creditworthiness to junk status. That rating cost Ghana being blocked from assessing the capital market.