Nigeria’s ascent in FM and the MSCI Frontier 100 Index comes just weeks after the country became Africa’s largest economy, but also as the OPEC member is grappling with the effects of a weak currency, reduced oil imports to the U.S. and rampant political volatility.
“Terrorist attacks in the Pakistani and Nigerian capitals should remain an unnerving phenomenon for citizens of both nations, as the random disruption of Nigerian petroleum and natural gas pipelines by the insurgency is not expected to abate in intensity for the immediate future,” said S&P Capital IQ in recent research note. [Evaluating Political Risk With Frontier ETFs]
After NGE, the ETF with the second-largest weight to Nigeria is the Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (NYSEArca: AFK). AFK currently allocates 16.9% of its weight to Nigeria, making it the ETF’s third-largest country exposure. However, AFK is a GDP-weighted ETF, meaning it is possible that following the fund’s next rebalance that Nigeria’s presence will increase in AFK as well.
Global X Nigeria Index ETF
