CBN governor, Emefiele debunks claims Nigeria delisted from JP Morgan’s bond index

Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has dismissed media reports that JP Morgan delisted Nigeria from its bond index.

Emefiele said this after presenting and analysing the Monetary Policy Committee’s communique on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said Nigeria is still in the index, adding that the country was only reclassified from overweight to market weight.

JP Morgan’s Emerging Markets Bond Overweight and Underweight are used to make recommendations on stocks to buy or avoid.

“Let me say that contrary to widespread media reports that we were delisted or that we were removed from the JPMorgan bond index; and the truth is that, that is very untrue. Nigeria is still in their index.

“We were only reclassified, Nigeria’s rating, I will say was reclassified from overweight to market weight, which is just a mere reclassification of our size in the index.

“So, let me say and I repeat, Nigeria has not been delisted from any JP Morgan bond index.

“We have the report here, page 10 of it; I won’t bore you with it. You can go online and read it. Page 10 was specifically devoted to Nigeria. And it was very, very clear the reason why Nigeria’s rating was moved from overweight to just market weight,” Emefiele said.