Nigeria rejoins JP Morgan bond index after 11 years

By Adeleke Alade

J.P. Morgan has included Nigeria in its newly introduced Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge, assigning Nigerian government bonds a 7.4 per cent weighting in the benchmark tracking local-currency sovereign debt across emerging and frontier markets.

The development was disclosed in J.P. Morgan’s Global Index Research report dated September 14, 2026, and confirmed by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, on his official X account. The inclusion gives naira-denominated Federal Government of Nigeria bonds renewed visibility among international fixed-income investors who track or benchmark their portfolios against J.P. Morgan indices.

Nigeria’s 7.40 per cent allocation is close to the 8 per cent maximum weighting assigned to individual countries in the index. The benchmark includes $17.47 billion worth of eligible Nigerian government bonds across 16 instruments, with the securities recording an average yield to maturity of 17.1 per cent, an average duration of 3.38 years and a B- sovereign credit rating.

The Nigerian allocation is among the larger country weights in the GBI-EM Edge. Vietnam, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kazakhstan each have the maximum 8 per cent weighting, while Sri Lanka has 7.5 per cent. Kenya has a 6.91 per cent weighting, followed by Tunisia at 5.32 per cent and Uganda at 4.84 per cent. Frontier African markets collectively account for 44.5 per cent of the index, compared with 31.5 per cent for Asian markets.

Overall, the GBI-EM Edge tracks about $328 billion in local-currency government debt across 425 instruments, 26 markets and 24 currencies. J.P. Morgan said the expansion of the benchmark reflects the growing importance of frontier local-currency debt markets, as well as improvements in bond issuance, auction processes, post-trade infrastructure and access for foreign investors.

For Nigeria, the development is particularly significant because the country’s bonds are returning to the J.P. Morgan benchmark universe more than a decade after Nigeria was removed from the bank’s flagship government bond index. Nigeria was initially admitted to J.P. Morgan’s Government Bond Index in October 2012 following the development of a more active domestic Federal Government bond market, supported by market makers, a two-way quote system and a broader investor base.