It should already be recalled that the African Development Bank administers Ababi, a family of African bond indices launched in February 2015 and calculated by the independent and global index provider Bloomberg.

At launch, the indices included Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Botswana and Namibia joined Ababi in October 2015, and Ghana and Zambia joined in April 2017. On January 1, 2021, Mauritius and Morocco became members of Ababi, the bank said in a press release.

“This is a positive development because the inclusion of Mauritius and Morocco, two of the highest-rated issuers in Africa, will improve the overall credit quality of Ababi, which now represents nearly 90% of the outstanding African sovereign bonds in local currency,” said Stefan Nalletamby, director of the bank's financial sector development department.

Mr. Nalletamby noted that in the current environment, Ababi Indices are a reliable tool for international investors to measure and monitor African sovereign bond markets. “This will be even more relevant after the Covid-19 crisis because sovereign debt managers, who will need to further diversify their local currency funding instruments, will also need to adjust their strategies, improve transparency and broaden their fixed-income investor base, given the increased funding needs of economies.”

The African Development Bank is working to deepen the continent's local currency bond markets and create an environment where African countries can access long-term finance. By providing transparent and credible benchmarks, the bank and Bloomberg are providing investors with a tool to better measure and monitor the performance of African bond markets.

The bank also structured and invested in an exchange-traded fund, the African Domestic Bond Fund (Adbf), which replicates the index and provides investors with an innovative tool to gain exposure to fixed income securities in African local currencies. Adbf is listed in US dollars on the Mauritius Stock Exchange and managed by the Mauritius Commercial Bank Investment Management.