Nigeria’s Credit Rating Lifted by Fitch for First Time Since 2019

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Nigeria’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘B’ from ‘B-‘, with the outlook said to be stable.

The upgrade marks the first since December 2019, when Fitch lifted the country’s credit rating from ‘B’ to ‘B+’. In November 2022, Nigeria got a downgrade to ‘B-‘ owing to “continued deterioration in Nigeria’s government debt servicing costs and external liquidity despite high oil prices in 2022”.

The global credit rating agency said in a statement that the upgrade “reflects increased confidence in the government’s broad commitment to policy reforms implemented since its move to orthodox economic policies in June 2023, including exchange rate liberalisation, monetary policy tightening and steps to end deficit monetisation and remove fuel subsidies”.

These, it said, have improved policy coherence and credibility and reduced economic distortions and near-term risks to macroeconomic stability, enhancing resilience in the context of persistent domestic challenges and heightened external risks.

“The stable outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that the macroeconomic policy stance will sustain improvements in the functioning of the FX market and support the move to lower inflation, although it will likely remain far higher than rating peers,” it said.