It should already be remembered that the AfDB 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 in April 2017. On January 1, 2021, Mauritius and Morocco became members of Ababi, the bank said in a statement.

"This is a positive development as the inclusion of Mauritius and Morocco, two of Africa's highest-rated issuers, will improve ababi's overall credit quality, which now accounts for nearly 90% of the stock of African sovereign bonds in local currency," said Stefan Nalletamby, head 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 track African sovereign bond markets. "This will be even more relevant after the Covid-19 crisis as sovereign debt managers who will need to further diversify their local currency financing instruments, will also need to adjust their strategies, improve transparency and broaden their fixed income investor base, given the increased financing 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 financing. By providing transparent and credible benchmarks, the bank and Bloomberg provide investors with a tool to better measure and track the performance of African bond markets.

The bank has 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 currency. Adbf is listed in US dollars on the Mauritius Stock Exchange and managed by Mauritius Commercial Bank Investment Management.