The Ministry of Finance organized, this Monday, June 20, the ceremony of restitution of the sovereign financial rating in local currency of the DRC by the rating agency Bloomfield investment corporation. The rating report reveals that the DRC is rated BBB, which means that the country has “strong fundamentals in the moderate risk investment category”.
For the Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, this rating will promote “the attraction of investments” in the DRC.
“The rating is a very important element of the financial architecture both globally and regionally (Editor’s note: Africa). It plays a role in the development of and access to financial markets, debt issuance and solvency, investment attraction and reference for the entire economy. For a government, a financial rating goes beyond credit considerations. For investors, the financial rating is used to determine the level of “country risk” and investment decisions,” said Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi.
For the managing director of the Bloomfield agency, “the DRC has solid fundamentals in the moderate risk investment category”.
“We have rated the DRC in local currency, that means we have established the credit quality, therefore the ability and willingness of the DRC to meet its financial obligations in Congolese francs, in the short, medium and long term and from this analysis we released the long-term BBB rating and the short-term A2 rating, which means that the BBB rating shows that the DRC has solid fundamentals in the moderate risk investment category. This means that investors can come to the DRC without asking too many questions. Obviously, there are weaknesses which have been highlighted, which have been taken up by the minister, but the advantage is that the DRC has become aware of its weaknesses and has decided to set up a monitoring mechanism and a mechanism discussion and development of a solution to overcome these weaknesses”, said Stanislas Zeze.
Several personalities took part in this ceremony, notably the governor of the central bank of Congo (BCC), Malangu Kabedi Mbuyi, the portfolio minister Adèle Kayinda, as well as her colleague from industry Julien Paluku. Challenges in the context of the business climate were also mentioned, in particular that of security and the strong pressure of the dollar on the Congolese franc.
Ivan Kasongo
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