FG Targets Investment-Grade Credit Rating for Nigeria by 2030
By Patience Ikpeme
The Federal Government has announced that it wants Nigeria to earn an investment-grade sovereign credit rating by 2030. It plans to explain how it will do this at the 6th International Rating Webinar organised by DataPro.
An investment-grade rating is a sign from international rating agencies that a country can be trusted to repay its debts. Countries with such ratings generally borrow money at lower cost and find it easier to attract foreign investors.
The Minister of State for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, will give the keynote address at the event and present the government’s plan for reaching the target. Her presentation is titled “Achieving Investment Grade Rating by 2030: The Roadmap for Nigeria.” It will describe the policy, institutional and financial steps the government believes are necessary to improve the country’s standing with rating agencies.
The minister is also expected to speak on why honest and well-planned budgets, along with open management of public finances, matter in building trust in the country’s credit. Such openness helps lenders and investors judge for themselves how well the government manages the nation’s money.
Dr. Uzoka-Anite is further expected to call for closer cooperation between the authorities that manage government spending and revenue and those that control interest rates and the supply of money in the economy. Working together, she is expected to say, would make the economy more predictable and give it a more lasting foundation.
The government’s reform plan also depends on stronger public institutions, so that policies are properly carried out and investors have more confidence in the country. The webinar is expected to look at practical ways governments can fix weaknesses in how they are run, since such weaknesses can count against a country when rating agencies assess it.
DataPro’s webinar will expand the discussion by bringing together experts from the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and universities outside Africa. They will examine how African governments can improve their sovereign ratings.
The panellists will also study the experiences of different countries, the order in which reforms should be carried out, and the technical factors rating agencies weigh when deciding how risky it is to lend to a government.
