Global architecture of unfairness:

Abstract

This article discusses the biases, controversies, contradictions, and the ‗shenanigans‘ of the international cred-it rating agencies in Africa. It focuses on the Big Three rating agencies namely Fitch Ratings, Moody‘s, and Standard & Poor‘s. It argues that the Big Three rating agencies are not neutral arbiters of financial, political and economic risks in Africa, as they purport to be. On the contrary, they are part of the global financial infrastructure of unfairness that has contributed toward the continued marginalisation, exclusion, financial subordination, and peripherisation of the African countries in the global financial economy. The article concludes by canvassing for the establishment of a Pan-African Credit Rating Agency that will come up with suitable methodologies, indicators, and rating processes that will be fair, credible, and relevant to the continent‘s historical, economical, and political contexts. By so doing, Africa will be able to delink itself from the tentacles of imperial credit rating agencies.