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African Panel of Experts Chairperson, Trevor Manuel.
The African Panel of Experts Chairperson, Trevor Manuel, has called on the global rating agencies to refrain from unfairly discriminating against African economies.
Manuel says the continent presents a lot of opportunities amid its challenges and these agencies are not being fair to the continent.
He says the panel has set a benchmark for themselves on how they will improve prosperity on the African continent among other things detailed in the report.
The panel have identified a multitude of challenges in the continent, one being the issue of debt and how many countries in the continent are under debt pressure.
In the same breath, Manuel has made a call on global rating agencies to be fair on how they rate African countries in the continent.
“What we are calling for is for ratings agencies to declare the metrics that they use, so that when you’re comparing one country with the other, you can understand exactly what the basis is. And if it can’t be supported by empirical evidence, then I think we have to call out the ratings agencies for unfairly discriminating against African economies.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the report saying some ideas will be taken forward beyond the G20.
“The idea that you put on the agenda that there should be a borrower’s club, there is a Paris club, a club of lenders, and there’s no reason why we should not have a borrower’s club, where countries that borrow money get together and share best practice and share experiences. So that is, in my view, a really good proposal, which we would like to see taken forward.”
The long-anticipated leaders’ meetings are fast approaching, after holding numerous meetings among government, business, labour and civil society, among others.
South Africa will host the final Heads of State meeting on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2025.
G20 Social Summit opening
