Morocco has joined the African Development Bank's Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI), the multilateral development finance institution announced Monday in a press release sent to Yabiladi. ABABi, administered by the African Development Bank, is «family of African bond indices launched in February 2015 and calculated by the independent, global index provider Bloomberg», the statement explains. ABABI includes other countries, including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Ghana, Zambia and Mauritius, added at the same time as Morocco. «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% of the outstanding amount of African sovereign local currency bonds», said Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the Bank's Financial Sector Development Department. This will be even more relevant following the COVID-19 crisis as sovereign debt managers, who will need to further diversify their local currency funding instruments, will also need to adjust their strategies, enhance transparency and widen their fixed income investor base, given the increased financing needs of the economies», Nalletamby added.
