Nigeria sets sight on MSCI, JPMorgan return after FTSE win 

With a return to the FTSE index secured, Nigerian authorities will now turn their attention to persuading MSCI and JPMorgan to restore the country to their global equity and bond benchmarks, in a bid to unlock a potentially larger channel for foreign capital.

“We are now moving towards getting reincluded on the MSCI and JP Morgan index,” Emomotimi Agama, director-general of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) told BusinessDay. “All of the progress we are making is a reflection of the growth of the market,” Agama said.

MSCI currently treats Nigeria as a Standalone Market, a status it imposed in 2024 after concluding that persistent foreign-exchange liquidity problems were preventing international investors from reliably moving money into and out of Nigerian equities. MSCI said at the time that the accessibility of the market did not meet the standards expected of a Frontier Market.

JPMorgan, also acting on currency controls in the country, pulled Nigeria off its Government Bond Index for Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) in 2015, after only just three years of being included.

“With the right policy mix, Nigeria could return,” Charlie Robertson, an Emerging Markets strategist, said.

“Back in 2012 just being included in one of those bond indexes was expected to result in $1 billion of inflows. As recently as 2015, Nigeria was over 10% of the Frontier equity index, and the head of the stock exchange at the time hoped to grow the stock market so much that it might be considered for emerging market…