We need to contest Fitch rating for our credibility – Kafui Amegah

Communication Team Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kafui Amegah, has said that its necessary for the Ghanaian government to challenge the negative credit ratings by both Fitch and Moody’s.

Kafui Amegah says it will be wrong on the part of the ruling government if it failed to challenge these ratings when government had the right figures.

“Our international credibility has been put on the line and if we have the right figures in opposition to Fitch and Moody’s then we have to contest them.”

The politician argued that such ratings if left unchallenged will affect Ghana’s trade internationally, hence “the need to put such things and wrong ratings into proper context.”

In a panel discussion on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Dabenpolitical talk show, Kafui Amegah charged that some issues were not factored in the ratings agencies decisions “and we need them to reconsider our ratings with all the information at their disposal.”

The Ministry of Finance in Ghana has accused Moody’s Investors Service of bias, following the ratings agency’s decision to downgrade the West African country’s credit rating from a B3 to a CAA1 on Friday.

Moody’s decision to downgrade Ghana was due to what it described as the “increasingly difficult task government faces in addressing the intertwined liquidity and debt challenges.”

Earlier in January, Fitch Ratings had also downgraded the country’s credit rating from a B to a B- due to concerns over Ghana’s ability to issue bonds this year.

The country’s finance ministry issued a strongly-worded statement following the recent downgrade by Moody’s. Part of the statement said:

“We are gravely concerned about what appears to be an institutionalized bias against African economies in this aspect…with little regard for the adverse impact on the cost and access of financing for African Sovereigns… We shall actively continue to support the global outcry against this leviathan.”

The statement further accused Moody’s of failing to take into consideration certain key information during its assessment, and refusing to give a new credit analyst enough time to fully understand the Ghanaian economy prior to the assessment.

The country had even tried to appeal Moody’s rating, but the agency rejected the appeal and went ahead to announce the downgrade.