{"id":47590,"date":"2026-10-08T14:15:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=47590"},"modified":"2026-10-08T14:15:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:15:30","slug":"au-discusses-capital-access-reforms-after-unveiling-continental-credit-rating-agency","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/au-discusses-capital-access-reforms-after-unveiling-continental-credit-rating-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"AU discusses capital access reforms after unveiling continental credit rating agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the official launch of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) in Port Louis, African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has convened a high-level roundtable focused on lowering the continent&#8217;s borrowing costs and reforming access to international capital markets.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Held under the theme &#8220;Beyond AfCRA: Improving the Africa Risk Premium and the De-risking Africa Initiative,&#8221; the session brought together international financial experts and policymakers to address how biased sovereign credit ratings inflate borrowing costs for African nations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to United Nations estimates, unfair risk assessments cost African sovereigns up to $74.5 billion annually in excess interest payments, severely constraining public investments in infrastructure, health, and economic development.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Delegates discussed co-ordinated financial reforms aimed at strengthening continental institutions, implementing sovereign de-risking mechanisms, and establishing a fairer risk framework to ensure affordable, long-term development financing across Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/Joao Pedro Yabala&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34778,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-47590","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"AU hosts financial de-risking forum following AfCRA launch ","published_date":"2026-10-08 14:14:38","news_description":"AU hosts financial de-risking forum following AfCRA launch ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47591,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47590\/revisions\/47591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}