Then there is corruption. Nigeria’s corruption rankings are among the worst in the world and that is a sticking point with the foreign investors the country so longs to attract. Earlier this year, President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi due to the latter’s criticism of Jonathan’s inadequate track record of fighting corruption. [Central Bank Flap Hits Nigeria ETF]
Investors can gain decent-sized exposure to Nigeria with other ETFs, including the iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF (NYSEArca: FM) and the Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (NYSEArca: AFK). Nigeria currently accounts for 11.5% of FM’s weight, but that number is expected to jump next month when the United Arab Emirates and Qatar move to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
AFK currently allocates 16.7% of its weight to Nigeria, but that number could also change in the near-term. The is GDP-weighted, so in theory, Nigeria should be the fund’s largest country weight (it is currently third) when the ETF rebalances in June. However, AFK’s index has capping mechanisms in place aimed at preventing a single country or individual stocks from dominating the fund. [Nigeria’s GDP Change Could Change This ETF]
Market Vectors Africa Index ETF
