Nigeria is set to attract additional foreign portfolio investment into its domestic bond market following the inclusion of selected Federal Government of Nigeria bonds in J.P. Morgan’s newly introduced Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge (GBI-EM Edge).
J.P. Morgan, which manages some of the world’s most widely tracked emerging market bond indices, announced the inclusion on September 14, 2026, according to a statement shared by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, on X.
The new benchmark tracks local-currency government debt across frontier emerging markets, with Nigeria receiving a 7.40 per cent weighting among the 26 markets covered.
The allocation represents approximately $17.47bn of eligible FGN debt across 16 instruments and is close to J.P. Morgan’s maximum country weighting of eight per cent.
The Federal Government said the development reflected the impact of its economic reforms, including the stabilisation of the naira, clearance of the foreign exchange backlog, improvements in GDP growth and inflation, and broader efforts to strengthen investor confidence in Nigeria’s domestic debt market.
Nigeria qualified for inclusion based on two major criteria: liquidity and issuance size.
FGN bonds are actively traded under a Two-Way Quote System, while outstanding volumes per tenor are above the $250m minimum required for inclusion in the GBI-EM Edge.
The inclusion marks Nigeria’s return to a J.P. Morgan benchmark for the first time in more than a decade.
Nigeria exited the GBI-EM Global Diversified index in 2015 amid foreign exchange liquidity constraints, which the government said had been directly addressed through the current reform programme.
The government also recalled that FGN bonds were first included in the GBI-EM in 2012, a development that attracted significant foreign investment into Nigeria’s domestic securities market.
According to the statement, the earlier inclusion reduced the cost of issuance by approximately 200 basis points, while also opening the equities market and banking sector to foreign capital and boosting the country’s external reserves.
The latest index tracks approximately $328bn in local-currency government debt globally.
With Nigeria accounting for 7.40 per cent of the index, index-tracking funds are expected to adjust their portfolios to reflect the country's weighting, potentially generating additional foreign portfolio inflows into the domestic bond market over time.
The government expects increased foreign institutional demand to support bond prices and gradually reduce domestic yields.
Such a development, it said, could help moderate the Federal Government’s cost of servicing naira-denominated debt.
Although the index focuses on mid- to long-tenor government bonds, the government expects improved liquidity in the FGN bond market to have wider positive effects across the domestic debt market, including Nigerian Treasury Bills.
Reacting to the development, Oyedele described Nigeria’s inclusion as an endorsement of the government’s economic reform programme.
“This inclusion is a clear, independent endorsement of the discipline behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reform agenda,” he said.
Oyedele said the development reflected the confidence international capital markets now had in Nigeria’s economic management.
“It reflects the confidence international capital markets now place in Nigeria's economic management, and it lowers the cost of financing our development priorities,” he said.
The minister, however, noted that more work was required before Nigeria could regain full reinstatement in J.P. Morgan’s flagship index.
“We remain focused on the work still required to earn full reinstatement in J.P. Morgan's flagship index,” Oyedele said.
The Federal Government said it remained committed to sustaining its reform agenda and deepening investor confidence in the domestic market.
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