The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is raising red flags over what they describe as bias on the part of three of the world’s biggest credit rating agencies against some African countries including the Republic of Ghana.

In its latest report on lowering the cost of borrowing in Africa, the UNDP says the continued downgrade of Ghana’s economy is based on “less subjective assessments” and it is costing the state and other African countries some 75 billion dollars.

With this amount of money saved, it is more likely that Ghana may not have signed up for a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

https://youtu.be/SVB9otmZMrA

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Blessed Sogah on Foreign Affairs on JoyNews, Ahunna Eziakonwa - the Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP, says a recent study by the agency on the cost of borrowing and the credit rating bias puts African countries at a disadvantage.

“If we can deal with that, you save $75 billion a year for just 16 countries (including Ghana) that we surveyed”.

She added “It comes back to the perceptions. A lot of it (the ratings) is really perceptions. I mean, there are facts and there's a reality that you have insecurity in some cases and you have foreign exchange volatility in other cases. But it's not taking into account all the data. And it's also not always objective. Some of it is subjective”.

The diplomat also bemoaned the procyclicality of the narrative, adding that if a country such as Ghana is being rated that should be done “in terms of what it (Ghana) has to offer and what its potential is and do that rating based on some objective data. And if you did that, many African countries will not end up in the junk basket” Ahunna Eziakonwa argued.

https://myjoyonline.com/akufo-addo-takes-on-global-rating-agencies-describes-their-work-as-reckless#:~:text=President%20Nana%20Akufo%2DAddo%20has,country's%20creditworthiness%20to%20junk%20status.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, recently slammed global rating agencies describing their work as reckless and unfriendly, especially towards struggling developing economies.

At the height of Ghana’s economic crisis, all the rating agencies downgraded the country’s creditworthiness to junk status.

The rating resulted in Ghana being blocked from assessing the capital market.

Addressing participants at the ongoing 30th Afrieximbank annual general meeting in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said: "The AU champion for African financial institution and leader of a country which recently had to deal with one of the most difficult periods in its post-independent history.

“Difficulties which were exacerbated by the reckless behaviour of rating agencies that engaged in downgrade shutting Ghana out of the capital market and turning the liquidity crises into solvency crises.”

According to him, during the country’s economic crises, Afrieximbank provided the needed support to help “Ghana navigate the macroeconomic management challenges worsened by Russian aggression war in Ukraine in an orderly manner when suddenly we realise we were alone.”