Fitch has affirmed the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) long-term issuer default rating (IDR) at ‘AAA’ with a stable outlook, and its short-term IDR at F1+. This is the best quality grade, indicating exceptionally strong capacity to meet its financial commitments.

The global rating agency said in a statement that the ‘AAA’ rating primarily reflects extraordinary support from AfDB’s shareholders which provides three-notch uplift over the Bank’s intrinsic rating.

"AfDB enjoys strong support from its 80 member states, which include 26 non-African countries with high average ratings. Callable capital subscribed by member states rated ‘AAA’, the largest of which are the US, Germany and Canada, accounts for 21 per cent of the total, which fully covered the Bank’s net debt as at end of 2016, underpinning the ‘AAA’ assessment of shareholders’ capacity to support it,” according to the statement.