Nigeria Returns To JP Morgan Global Bond Index After 11 Years

Leading global investment banker, JP Morgan, has included Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bonds in its freshly launched Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge, relaunching the country into the bank’s bond benchmark after 11 years.

The development came days before FTSE Russell’s reclassification of Nigeria from Unclassified to Frontier market status, effective September 21, 2026, after the index provider concluded that the country had met the required market-accessibility criteria.

FGN bonds were first included in the J.P. Morgan GBI-EM in 2012, and attracted substantial foreign investment into the domestic securities market, but the country exited in 2015 amid foreign exchange liquidity squeeze.

The global investment banking giant announced Nigeria’s re-entry into the bond market via its Global Index Research report on Monday.

Nigeria entered the index with a 7.40 per cent weighting, one of the highest among participating countries and close to J.P. Morgan’s maximum country weighting of eight 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 with frontier African markets collectively account for 44.5 per cent of the index, compared with 31.5 per cent for Asian markets.