{"id":64387,"date":"2025-11-20T20:05:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:57:39","slug":"africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say","title":{"rendered":"Africa Pays \u2018Scandalous\u2019 Premium to Borrow, Top Bankers Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The credit ratings of most African nations are much lower than similar sovereigns elsewhere in the world, costing them billions of dollars in additional debt-service payments and denting vital economic growth, according to three of the continent\u2019s top bankers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually scandalous,\u201d Standard Bank Group chief executive officer Sim Tshabalala told the inaugural Bloomberg Africa Business Summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe additional borrowing costs wipe out about two percentage points on African\u201d gross domestic product, he told a panel alongside Kenny Fihla and Roosevelt Ogbonna, the CEOs of Absa Group and Nigeria\u2019s Access Bank Plc respectively.<\/p>\n

Africa Finance Corp, a development bank, has dubbed the lower credit ratings a \u201cprejudice premium,\u201d estimating that the continent spends as much as $75 billion a year in additional borrowing costs. That extra charge is becoming more important, with 2025 shaping up to be the busiest for African debt sales since at least 2021.<\/p>\n

Tshabalala said that African sovereigns were rated about four rungs lower than they should be, Absa\u2019s Fihla agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that there\u2019s a massive perception premium\u201d that the region must work on to \u201cmake sure that Africa is appropriately positioned \u2014 that the rating is based on the actual facts,\u201d he told the panel.<\/p>\n

A July study by the International Monetary Fund found that sub-Saharan African nations pay about half a percentage point more in the bond market than similarly rated countries, and that it tends to increase during times of stress.<\/p>\n

Still, investors know how to judge risk, said Access Bank\u2019s Ogbonna. He noted that Nigeria successfully tapped the eurobond market in recent weeks, despite negative headlines from US President Donald Trump about what he claimed is the large-scale killing of Christians \u2013 a characterisation that Africa\u2019s most populous nation dismisses as untrue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe markets were smarter than just the narrative,\u201d he said, noting that Nigeria went to the market to borrow more than $2 billion and could have raised more. \u201cI think that\u2019s enough affirmation of how the markets perceive the Nigerian economy today,\u201d Ogbonna said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The credit ratings of most African nations are much lower than similar sovereigns elsewhere in the world, costing them billions of dollars in additional debt-service payments and denting vital economic growth, according to three of the continent\u2019s top bankers. \u201cIt\u2019s actually scandalous,\u201d Standard Bank Group chief executive officer Sim Tshabalala told the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-64387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica Pays \u2018Scandalous\u2019 Premium to Borrow, Top Bankers Say - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The credit ratings of most African nations are much lower than similar sovereigns elsewhere in the world, costing them b ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africa Pays \u2018Scandalous\u2019 Premium to Borrow, Top Bankers Say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The credit ratings of most African nations are much lower than similar sovereigns elsewhere in the world, costing them b ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-20T20:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-20T20:57:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763659428.159436.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Africa Pays \u2018Scandalous\u2019 Premium to Borrow, Top Bankers Say\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-20T20:05:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-20T20:57:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\"},\"wordCount\":364,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763659428.159436.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-pays-scandalous-premium-to-borrow-top-bankers-say\",\"name\":\"Africa Pays \u2018Scandalous\u2019 Premium to Borrow, Top Bankers Say - 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