• Sunday, November 03, 2024
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Why Kwara withdrew from Fitch, by Ahmed

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The Kwara State gov­ernor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, says the state government withdrew from ratings agency, Fitch, because the annual rating was no lon­ger required for any major financial transaction.

Speaking on a monthly interactive programme, ‘The Governor Explains’, Governor Ahmed said Kwara State in­vited Fitch to rate the state as a prelude to raising funds from the capital market in 2008/9 and to benchmark against best practices in financial management.

“We decided as a state when we were going to issue a bond in the capital market to explore the possibility of not only accessing the capital market but also showcas­ing ourselves to the world as benchmarking against best practices”, he emphasised.

Governor Ahmed, who said that Kwara State was the first in Nigeria to be rated by Fitch, noted that the invitation was on transactional basis, adding that the state decided not to renew the annual rating this year.

“If you want to contin­ue to be rated you pay for it and continue to submit data which will be analysed. We did it up till last year. We now feel that since we don’t have any major thing we require the rating results for now we can step it down this year”.

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