J.P. Morgan Puts Nigeria Back on Global Investors’ Radar With 7.4% Bond Index Weight

By John Paul
Nigeria has returned to a J.P. Morgan emerging-market bond benchmark more than a decade after its 2015 exit, securing a significant 7.4 per cent weighting in the bank’s newly introduced Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge (GBI-EM Edge).

A J.P. Morgan Global Index Research report dated September 14, 2026, showed that Nigeria has $17.47 billion in eligible Federal Government bonds spread across 16 instruments in the index.

The 7.4 per cent allocation is close to J.P. Morgan’s maximum country weighting of 8 per cent and makes Nigeria one of the largest exposures in the benchmark.

Nigeria’s bonds also offer an average yield to maturity of 17.1 per cent, considerably above the index average of 10.39 per cent, potentially increasing their attraction to international fixed-income investors.

Vietnam, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kazakhstan each have the maximum 8 per cent weighting, while Sri Lanka has 7.5 per cent. Kenya follows Nigeria with 6.91 per cent.

The GBI-EM Edge tracks about $328 billion in local-currency government debt across 425 instruments, 26 markets, and 24 currencies, with African frontier markets accounting for 44.5 per cent of the index.

Nigeria was admitted to J.P. Morgan’s Government Bond Index in 2012 but was removed in September 2015 following concerns about foreign-exchange liquidity, capital repatriation, exchange-rate transparency, and the absence of a functional two-way FX market.

The latest inclusion does not amount to reinstatement in J.P. Morgan’s flagship GBI-EM Global Diversified Index. The GBI-EM Edge is a separate benchmark covering frontier and emerging economies generally excluded from the flagship index.

Nigeria reopened discussions with J.P. Morgan in 2025 following reforms aimed at improving transparency and liquidity in the foreign-exchange market.

J.P. Morgan’s data showed that after a sharp depreciation in 2023 and 2024, the naira recorded positive FX returns of 6.7 per cent in 2025 and 8.1 per cent in the period covered in 2026.

The new 7.4 per cent weighting could significantly raise the international visibility of naira-denominated FGN bonds, putting Nigerian government securities firmly back on the radar of global investors tracking J.P. Morgan benchmarks.