J.P. Morgan Adds Nigeria to New Emerging-Market Bond Index With 7.4% Weight
J.P. Morgan has included Nigeria in its newly introduced Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge (GBI-EM Edge), assigning Nigerian local-currency government bonds a 7.4% weighting in the benchmark.
The development was disclosed in J.P. Morgan’s Global Index Research report dated September 14, 2026.
The inclusion places naira-denominated Nigerian government bonds in a J.P. Morgan emerging-market benchmark for the first time in more than a decade, following the country’s removal from the bank’s flagship government bond index in 2015.
Nigeria returns to J.P. Morgan benchmark
The GBI-EM Edge is designed to track local-currency government debt across frontier emerging markets, providing investors with a benchmark for markets that generally fall outside J.P. Morgan’s flagship emerging-market government bond index.
Nigeria’s 7.4% weighting gives the country a notable position in the newly introduced benchmark and could increase international investor visibility for its local-currency debt market.
The development comes as Nigeria continues efforts to deepen its domestic capital market and attract greater foreign participation in naira-denominated government securities.
Not a return to the flagship GBI-EM GD
Despite the significance of the inclusion, the move does not amount to Nigeria’s readmission into J.P. Morgan’s Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Global Diversified (GBI-EM GD).
The GBI-EM Edge is a separate benchmark focused on frontier markets that are generally outside the flagship GBI-EM series.
Therefore, while Nigerian government bonds are once again represented in a J.P. Morgan emerging-market bond benchmark, the country has not returned to the GBI-EM GD from which it was previously excluded.
The inclusion nevertheless provides a new benchmark reference for international investors tracking Nigeria’s local-currency debt market and could improve the visibility of naira government securities among global fixed-income investors.
