Fitch Ratings has downgraded African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-’.

Fitch also downgraded Afreximbank’s Short-Term IDR to ‘B’, from ‘F3’, and the long-term ratings on the bank’s global medium-term note programme and debt issuance to ‘BB+’, from ‘BBB-’.

The global rating institution subsequently withdrew the bank’s ratings.

In a statement posted on its website, Fitch explained that the downgrade “reflects our revision of Afreximbank’s policy importance risk to ‘medium’ from ‘low’ following the announcement of an agreement on Ghana’s debt to Afreximbank in the context of Ghana’s broader restructuring”.

It said, “This has led us to revise our assessment of Afreximbank’s business profile to ‘high risk’ from ‘medium risk’, which resulted in an overall business environment notching of -3 (-2 previously).”

Essentially, a BB+ /Stable rating from Fitch is considered non-investment grade, also known as high-yield or “junk”.

The statement added, “Fitch has chosen to withdraw the ratings for commercial reasons. Fitch will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage for the bank.”

In arriving at its decision, Fitch stated, “Afreximbank and Ghana announced in December 2025 that they had reached an agreement in principle with respect to Afreximbank’s $750 million sovereign loan to Ghana.

“The IMF stated that the deal is in line with the comparability of treatment under Ghana’s official creditor committee. We view this as evidence that Afreximbank did not benefit from its preferred creditor status (PCS).”

It said, “While we had not previously given any uplift in our solvency assessment for PCS, the de-facto preferential treatment in a broader sense that Afreximbank, along with most other multilateral development banks, benefit from was previously factored into our assessment of the bank’s policy importance.

“The bank’s inclusion in Ghana’s restructuring underlines its weakening policy importance, in our view.”

The rating institution also said, “Our latest assessment of Afreximbank’s ‘high’ business profile risk underpins the ‘high risk’ quality of governance assessment, and ‘high’ strategy risk.

“The ‘high risk’ business environment assessment reflects the bank’s exposure to a ‘high risk’ operating environment with weak credit quality, low income per capita and high political risk in the countries of operation.”

It explained that the ratings were driven by the bank’s Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) of ‘bb+’, reflecting the lower of the solvency (bbb+) and liquidity (a) assessments and its ‘high risk’ business environment.

The statement added that the solvency assessment balanced the bank’s ‘strong’ capitalisation and ‘moderate’ risk profile.

Fitch stated, “Afreximbank’s ‘bbb+’ solvency assessment reflects both ‘strong’ capitalisation and ‘moderate’ solvency risks. Our assessment of capitalisation is underpinned by a ‘moderate’ usable capital to risk-weighted assets (21 per cent at end-2024) ratio, a ‘strong’ equity to assets and guarantees ratio (19 per cent) and ‘excellent’ internal capital generation.

“The ‘moderate’ solvency risks assessment reflects ‘high’ credit risk, ‘weak’ risk management policies, ‘low’ concentration risk and ‘very low’ equity risk.

“Afreximbank’s ‘a’ liquidity assessment reflects the ‘strong’ quality of treasury assets, measured by the share of treasury assets rated ‘AA-’ to ‘AAA’ (50 per cent at end-2024 and we expect it to remain above the ‘strong’ threshold of 40 per cent), and a ‘moderate’ liquidity buffer (defined as liquid assets-to-short-term debt, at 95 per cent at end-2024).

“The bank’s liquidity profile is enhanced by its access to capital markets and diversified funding sources, including credit lines ($2.1 billion, of which $0.6 billion was committed at end-2024) and collateral deposits. The short duration of the loan portfolio also contains liquidity needs.”

Fitch also stated that it “assesses shareholders’ capacity to support Afreximbank at ‘bb-’, based on the average rating of key shareholders (ARKS) accounting for more than 50 per cent of the bank’s capital.

“The sovereign upgrades of Egypt and Nigeria, Afreximbank’stwo largest shareholders, in April 2025 improved the ARKS to ‘B+’ from ‘B’.

“Credit risk mitigants on callable capital (covering 40 per cent of $4.3 billion) enhance the support capacity by one notch to ‘bb-’.

“The support assessment also reflects the ‘strong’ propensity of shareholders to support the bank, which has been consistently demonstrated by ongoing capital injections and dividend reinvestments.” (Arise News)

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