Interesting press release popped up in our feeds today to the effect that African Development Bank and Bloomberg plan to collaborate on an African Bond Index.  As AFDB Director of the Financial Sector Development Department points out, the move "comes at a time when African countries are increasingly looking to domestic capital markets to source financing for economic development.”

It's not long so we've reproduced it in full below. Worth noting,  as while this may be a modest shift in the landscape it does point the way to a future where cross-border investment from what's currently called the "developed world"  doesn't necessarily populate its current privileged positionwhen it comes to financing resources projects in Africa; something that ought to be good for countries and which is likely to favour the nimbler investor. We shall see.

New index family to bring transparency to most liquid African bond markets

The African Development Bank (AfDB) through the African Financial Markets Initiative (AFMI) and Bloomberg on December 9 announced an agreement to collaborate on building the AfDB’s AFMISM Bloomberg® African Bond Index (ABABI), a new family of African bond indices that, once launched, will be calculated by the independent, global index provider, Bloomberg.

“This collaboration comes at a time when African countries are increasingly looking to domestic capital markets to source financing for economic development,” says Stefan Nalletamby, the Director of the Financial Sector Development Department of the AfDB.

The AFMI works to deepen the continent's local currency bond markets and also strives to create an environment where African countries can access financing at variable terms. By providing transparent and credible benchmark indices, the AFMI through its work with AfDB and Bloomberg will provide investors with a tool with which to measure and track the performance of Africa’s bond markets.
  
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The African Development Bank and the African Development Fund (collectively referred to as “AfDB”) are not affiliated with Bloomberg. AfDB does not represent or endorse the accuracy, completeness, reliability or current validity of any advice, opinion, statement or other information provided by Bloomberg contained in the publication, not does it make any warranties or representations as to the accuracy, completeness, reliability or current validity of any data or information relating to the AFMISM Bloomberg® African Bond Index.

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ENDS