Morocco has joined the Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI) of the African Development Bank (AfDB). Mauritius also joined the index set up in 2014 by the African bank and Bloomberg to provide investors with a reliable tool designed to measure and track the performance of Africa’s bond markets.

Starting January 2021, Mauritius and Morocco have become members of the ABABI, a composite index of single-country local-currency sovereign Bloomberg indices.

“This is a positive development as the inclusion of Mauritius and Morocco, two of Africa’s better-rated issuers, will improve the overall credit quality of the ABABI, which now captures close to 90 pc of the outstanding amount of African sovereign local currency bonds,” said Stefan Nalletamby, Director of AfDB’s Financial Sector Development Department.

In the current global economic uncertainty, the ABABI index is a reliable tool for international investors to measure and track African sovereign bond markets. Foreign investors use this index to measure the performance and risk profile of a market.

At its inception, the index included bonds from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. In 2015, Botswana and Namibia were added and in 2017 Ghana and Zambia joined the Index.