Fitch withdraws Afreximbank ratings following downgrade tied to Ghana loan deal
Fitch Ratings has downgraded the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to non-investment grade and withdrawn its ratings, citing concerns about the lender’s exposure to Ghana’s sovereign debt restructuring and a reassessment of its risk profile.
The global ratings agency cut Afreximbank’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-’ and lowered its Short-Term Issuer Default Rating to ‘B’ from ‘F3’. Ratings on the bank’s global medium-term note programme and other debt instruments were also reduced to ‘BB+’ before being withdrawn.
Fitch said the downgrade followed its decision to revise Afreximbank’s policy importance to “medium” from “low” after the bank agreed in December 2025 to a US$750 million sovereign loan arrangement with Ghana as part of the country’s broader debt restructuring programme. According to Fitch, the deal suggested that Afreximbank did not enjoy the preferred creditor status typically associated with multilateral development banks.
“This has led us to revise our assessment of Afreximbank’s business profile to ‘high risk’ from ‘medium risk’,” Fitch said, adding that the bank’s operating environment and governance challenges had increased its overall risk exposure.
The agency noted that Afreximbank operates largely in markets characterised by weak credit quality, low income levels and elevated political risk. “This reflects the bank’s exposure to high-risk markets with weak credit quality, low per capita income, and elevated political risk,” Fitch said.
A ‘BB+’ rating places Afreximbank below investment grade, a classification often referred to as high-yield or junk, indicating higher risk for investors.
Despite the downgrade, Fitch acknowledged that Afreximbank remains strongly capitalised, with a usable capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio of 21 per cent at the end of 2024 and what it described as “excellent” internal capital generation. The bank’s liquidity position was also assessed as solid, supported by a large share of highly rated treasury assets and access to diversified funding sources, including US$2.1 billion in credit lines.
However, Fitch said these strengths were outweighed by heightened credit, governance and strategy risks, which now define the bank’s operating profile. The agency also assessed shareholders’ capacity to support Afreximbank at ‘bb-’, noting that Egypt and Nigeria, its two largest shareholders, had seen sovereign upgrades in April 2025, improving average shareholder credit quality.
Fitch stressed that it decided to withdraw Afreximbank’s ratings for commercial reasons and would no longer provide analytical coverage of the institution.
The decision comes as Ghana continues to restructure its debt under an International Monetary Fund-supported programme, with the IMF stating that the agreement with Afreximbank was consistent with the comparability of treatment required under the official creditor committee framework.