The Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) is due to be officially launched in Mauritius on October 7, nearly a year after the island nation was selected to host the headquarters of the new pan-African ratings institution, which was created in part in response to claims of systematic bias among global agencies.

The launch will follow the second Annual African Conference on Credit Ratings, to be held in Mauritius on October 5 and 6 under the theme “Towards Developing African Capital Markets: Rechannelling Africa’s Capital”, l’Express reported on August 25.

Mauritius was formally selected as AfCRA’s headquarters jurisdiction in September 2025 following a competitive process among African Union member states conducted by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

The AU has mandated AfCRA to operate independently of the organisation as a privately owned, private-sector-led and self-funded ratings agency providing sovereign, subsovereign and corporate credit ratings. The agency is being established to complement rather than replace global ratings firms including Moody’s Ratings, part of Moody’s Corp (NYSE: MCO), S&P Global Ratings, part of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), and Fitch Ratings.

In February 2025, when they met in Addis Ababa for the 38th African Union Summit, African leaders said the creation of AfCRA would help counter bias that they said had long hampered the continent’s economic growth.

“Global credit rating agencies have not only dealt us a bad hand, they have also deliberately failed Africa,” Kenyan President William Ruto said at the time. “They rely on flawed models, outdated assumptions, and systemic bias, painting an unfair picture of our economies and leading to distorted ratings, exaggerated risks, and unjustifiably high borrowing costs.”

A study by the Africa Peer Review Mechanism and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) cited by Ruto put the cost of biased grading at $75bn in lost opportunities. A rating improvement of just one notch would unlock $15.5bn in additional funding for the continent, he said.

AfCRA’s ownership structure was still being finalised as recently as May, when APRM was conducting due diligence on potential equity partners and reviewing proposed shareholder terms and a financing vehicle for the agency. The AU has said the private ownership and funding structure is intended to underpin AfCRA’s operational independence and credibility.

The three major global agencies all dispute claims of systematic anti-African bias. At a Chatham House discussion on June 16, Moody’s senior vice-president Marie Diron said its historical default data showed “perfect alignment” between African sovereigns and similarly rated borrowers elsewhere. She argued that if Moody’s ratings were biased against Africa, African sovereigns should default less frequently than non-African borrowers carrying the same ratings. S&P and Fitch have made similar arguments.

Criticism of the existing ratings system has continued ahead of AfCRA’s launch. Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN under-secretary-general and special adviser on Africa to the UN secretary-general, told African Business on August 14: “Africa loses an estimated $74.5bn in additional debt service costs due to exaggerated risk perceptions and biased credit ratings.”

AfCRA is intended to provide an additional African perspective on credit risk and support deeper capital markets across the continent. APRM says the initiative could also help channel more domestic savings towards African businesses and infrastructure and reduce reliance on external financing.

For Mauritius, hosting the agency adds to the island’s role as a financial centre serving African markets and could attract ratings professionals, investors and other continental financial institutions.

Mauritius already hosts CARE Ratings Africa, which was incorporated in 2014 and became the first credit rating agency licensed by the country’s Financial Services Commission in May 2015.