J.P. Morgan has included Nigeria in its newly launched Government Bond Index–Emerging Markets Edge (GBI-EM Edge), assigning Nigerian government bonds a 7.4% weighting in the new benchmark.
The development marks the return of naira-denominated Nigerian government securities to a J.P. Morgan emerging-market benchmark, more than a decade after Nigeria was removed from the bank’s flagship government bond index in 2015. However, the inclusion is not a reinstatement into the GBI-EM Global Diversified Index, as the GBI-EM Edge is a separate benchmark focused on frontier markets.
According to J.P. Morgan’s September 14, 2026 Global Index Research report, Nigeria has approximately $17.47 billion in eligible government bonds across 16 securities included in the index. The securities have an average yield to maturity of 17.1%, a duration of 3.38 years, and a B- sovereign credit rating.
The new index tracks approximately $328 billion in local-currency government debt across 26 markets, 425 instruments and 24 currencies. Nigeria’s 7.4% allocation places it among the larger country weights in the benchmark, just below the 8% maximum assigned to several markets.
The development is significant for Nigeria’s fixed-income market because index inclusion can increase the visibility of Nigerian government securities among international investors whose portfolios track or benchmark against J.P. Morgan indices. Nigerian bonds also currently offer considerably higher yields than the index average: 17.1% compared with 10.39% for the benchmark.
Nigeria was originally added to J.P. Morgan’s Government Bond Index in October 2012, but was placed on Index Watch in 2015 amid concerns surrounding foreign-exchange market liquidity, capital repatriation, exchange-rate transparency and the functioning of the FX market. The country was subsequently removed from the index in September 2015.
The latest inclusion comes after reforms to Nigeria’s foreign-exchange market and renewed discussions between Nigerian authorities and J.P. Morgan over the country’s return to its bond benchmarks.
For Nigeria, the move could strengthen the international profile of its domestic bond market and potentially attract greater attention from global fixed-income investors, although actual capital flows will still depend on factors including currency stability, liquidity, sovereign risk and investor access.
