J.P Morgan, which manages the world’s most widely tracked emerging market bond indices, has included some selected Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds in its newly introduced Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge (GBI-EM Edge), a benchmark tracking local-currency government debt across frontier emerging markets.
A statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance on this recognition on Monday indicated that the inclusion reflected the impact of the government’s economic reforms, including the stabilisation of the Naira, the clearance of the foreign exchange backlog, and broader improvements in GDP growth and inflation, which have strengthened investor confidence in Nigeria’s domestic debt market.
Specifically, the ministry linked Nigeria’s qualification for the GBI-EM Edge on two key measures, namely liquidity, with FGN Bonds actively traded under a Two-Way Quote System, and issuance size, with outstanding volumes per tenor well above the USD 250 million minimum required for the GBI-EM Edge. Nigeria’s weighting in the index is 7.40%, among the highest of the 26 markets covered and close to J.P. Morgan’s 8% maximum country weighting.
It clarified that this inclusion represented Nigeria’s return to a J.P. Morgan benchmark for the first time in over a decade, following its exit from the GBI-EM Global Diversified index in 2015 amid foreign exchange liquidity constraints which the current reform agenda has directly addressed.
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The ministry recalled that FGN Bonds were first included in the GBI-EM in 2012, a milestone that drew significant foreign investment into Nigeria’s domestic securities market and reduced the cost of issuance by approximately 200 basis points. It also opened the equities market and banking sector to foreign capital and boosted external reserves.
According to the ministry, the GBI-EM Edge tracks approximately $328 billion in local-currency government debt globally. Nigeria’s 7.40% allocation represents roughly $17.47 billion of eligible FGN debt across 16 instruments.
It added that Index-tracking funds were expected to adjust their portfolios to reflect Nigeria’s weighting, which should channel additional foreign portfolio inflows into the domestic bond market over time.
On the latest feat, the ministry anticipated that the increased foreign institutional demand would support bond prices and gradually ease domestic yields, helping to moderate the government’s cost of servicing naira-denominated debt.
In addition, the ministry clarified that in terms of broader market liquidity while the index covers mid-to-long-tenor government bonds specifically, improved liquidity in the FGN bond market was expected to have positive knock-on effects across the wider debt market, including Nigerian Treasury Bills, over time.
Commenting on the inclusion of the FGN bonds in the GBI-EM Edge, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said: “This inclusion is a clear, independent endorsement of the discipline behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reform agenda. It reflects the confidence international capital markets now place in Nigeria’s economic management, and it lowers the cost of financing our development priorities. We remain focused on the work still required to earn full reinstatement in J.P. Morgan’s flagship index.”
Following the new rating by the leading global investment rating agency, the Federal Government restated its commitment to sustaining the reform agenda and deepening investor confidence in the domestic market.
