Events
Building Trust Through Transparency: Realizing the African Credit Rating Mechanism
From
To
By Invitation
Economy Africa Program of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in partnership with the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS), the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), and the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) organizes the first African Data Summit to discuss how African countries can fully reap the benefits of emerging technologies in digital data and cloud storage for economic growth while minimizing the associated risks. This includes adequate legal and regulatory frameworks, data protection (including acquisition, handling and sharing), harmonizing heterogeneous approaches and finding the right balance to ensure adequate flow of data across borders and within a country to allow novel technologies to operate adequately while safeguarding individual rights and implementing adequate frameworks for data sovereignty.
The Policy Center for the New South organizes a panel discussion under within the summit titled “Building Trust Through Transparency: Realizing the African Credit Rating Mechanism”. This panel will focus on the operationalization of the African Credit Rating Mechanism (ACRM), a critical initiative to provide the continent with an independent and credible alternative to global credit rating agencies. The discussion will explore how improved access to standardized data across African countries can help reduce information asymmetries, support domestic and international investor confidence, and ultimately lower sovereign borrowing costs..
Key themes include the importance of institutional coordination, public-private collaboration in data generation and sharing, and the role of pan-African initiatives such as Afrobarometer in fostering evidence-based assessments. Panelists will share practical experiences and policy insights on the challenges and opportunities of creating credible risk assessments for investments in Africa, and how better data availability can help strengthen macroeconomic resilience.
