Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) closer to junk status, saying that the bank’s “unsecured lending to sovereigns under stress has introduced significant risks.”
It follows a similar move by Fitch Ratings last month, a downgrade that sparked questions about the Cairo-based institution’s broader strategy. Afreximbank “often seems determined not to be bogged down by orthodox multilateral development bank practices,” Bright Simons, honorary vice president at the Accra-based think tank IMANI, wrote for Semafor in June.
Last week Afreximbank shareholders appointed George Elombi, a Cameroonian national who has worked at the institution for more than two decades, as the bank’s next president.
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