Amid concerns over seeming bias in global credit rating systems, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Nigerian government have called for a more equitable approach to evaluating African economies.
Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, and AfDB Vice President and Chief Economist, Kevin Chika Urama, made this call at the recently concluded inaugural ‘Policy Dialogue on Making Debt Work for Africa: Policies, Practices and Options’ in Abuja.
The hybrid event, which brought together debt management officers, finance ministers, and multilateral organisations from across Africa, echoed a common call for the establishment of an African credit rating agency to address systemic inequalities in the global financial landscape.
At the same forum, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged Nigeria to adopt more conservative and realistic budgetary planning to avoid exacerbating its debt burden amid growing economic challenges.
IMF’s Resident Representative in Nigeria, Christian Ebeke, emphasised the need for an integrated approach to debt management, pointing out inefficiencies in budget processes and overly optimistic forecasts as key issues undermining fiscal sustainability.
