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Good governance: a pan-African rating agency to provide assistance to Congo

Finance and Budget Minister Calixte Nganongo chaired a September 21 meeting in Brazzaville with officials from the rating agency, Bloomfield Investment Corporation.

Discussions between the Congolese side and the CEO of this Ivorian agency, Stanislas ZEZE, revolved around the expertise that the rating structure in the Congo will have to provide, with a view to helping it improve its management of public finances. “Until now, our country has been rated by international agencies that are based outside the continent. Today, we wish to have the appreciation of an agency which notes in FCFA and not only in currency “, explained the Minister for the Budget, Ludovic Ngatsé.

Speaking on the importance of being rated, he said: “The advantage of working with an African regional agency is that the rating will be much more precise. Because, she knows the African environment. This will push us to work better, in order to improve governance in our country and be able to raise funds. We can only be able to raise funds if we give the guarantees of good management “.

Welcoming Congo’s initiative to re-enter the financial rating process with a pan-African agency, the CEO of Bloomfield said that “the rating made in local currency will determine the true credit quality of Congo while that made in foreign currency by international agencies, determines the Congo’s capacity to meet financial obligations in foreign currency. This is very limited in view of the size of the reserves and the currency transfer policy by CEMAC ”.

He added that “when it comes to financial ratings, you can’t cheat. If the given rating does not correspond to reality in the market, we will lose our credibility. We will not take this risk ”.

Bloomfield Investment Corporation is an Ivorian agency specializing in credit risk assessment. In 10 years of activity, she has combed through the financial statements of companies, states, local authorities and even institutions. More than 600 financial scores were awarded in this way.

Financial rating is, for investors, a key criterion in estimating the risk that an investment entails, particularly in the context of increasingly global financial markets which make it difficult to control information and therefore all risk parameters.

Executives from the Ministry of Finance, representatives of the World Bank and the Bank of Central African States (Beac) took part in this meeting.