The Bank’s ‘AAA’ rating is the result of the extraordinary support of its shareholders, rated AAA by Fitch Ratings
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire – The international financial rating agency Fitch Ratings confirmed, Tuesday, July 21, the long-term “AAA” issuer default rating of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org), with a stable outlook.
“The Bank’s ‘AAA’ rating is the result of the extraordinary support of its shareholders, rated AAA by Fitch Ratings,” the agency said in a statement. It considers the Bank’s risk management policy to be excellent and prudent, like those of its regional counterparts, also rated ‘AAA’.
Fitch Ratings considers that “the Bank’s liquidity profile is excellent, assigning it an ‘AAA’ rating, both for its liquidity reserves and for the quality of these”, and that “the Bank’s capitalization is solid, reflecting a very good ratio between equity and assets. “
The international rating agency takes into account “a subscription of up to 125% of the Bank’s capital, from 2021, within the framework of the 7th general capital increase approved in October 2019”, noting that “all its non-regional shareholders should make their first payments before October 2021. “
Last April, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved a US $ 10 billion Covid-19 response facility for current borrowers to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the economies of these countries. country.
“We are delighted that the Fitch Ratings agency has confirmed the Bank’s debt rating ‘AAA’, with a stable outlook, despite the difficult global and regional economic conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We will continue our efforts to strengthen the relevance of our policy of support to regional member countries, in particular during and after the Covid-19 crisis. We will also ensure that we maintain our prudential ratios and adequate levels of buffer liquidity, ”said the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina.
“The broad support of our shareholders is essential for the Bank to continue to play its leading role in development assistance in Africa,” said Swazi Tshabalala, Acting Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank, in charge of finances.
The African Bank’s “AAA” rating with stable outlook by Fitch Ratings follows an earlier identical rating assigned by the American agency Standard and Poor’s Global Rating.
Distributed by APO Group for African Development Bank Group (AfDB).
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