- The African Development Bank has announced the addition of two new countries – Mauritius and Morocco – to its Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI).
- The addition marks another milestone to the Bank’s efforts to deepen the continent’s local currency bond market.
The African Development Bank has announced the addition of two new countries – Mauritius and Morocco – to its Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI). The addition marks another milestone to the Bank’s efforts to deepen the continent’s local currency bond market. ABABI, a family of African bond indices was launched in February 2015 and calculated by the independent, global index provider Bloomberg. When it was launched in Feb 2015,, the indices included Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Later Botswana and Namibia joined in October 2015, and Ghana and Zambia in April 2017. Mauritius and Morocco have become members of the ABABI, effective from 1 January 2021.
Speaking about the development, Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the Bank’s Financial Sector Development Department, said that the inclusion of Mauritius and Morocco, two of Africa’s better-rated issuers, will improve the overall credit quality of the ABABI, which currently captures almost 90% of the outstanding amount of African sovereign local currency bonds. He pointed out that
the ABABI indices were reliable tools for international investors to measure and track African sovereign bond markets and has become even more relevant following the COVID-19 crisis.
The African Development Bank has been striving to deepen the continent’s local currency bond markets and create an environment where African countries can access long-term financing. Through transparent and credible benchmark indices, the Bank and Bloomberg help investors with a tool to better measure and track the performance of Africa’s bond markets.
