Morgan Stanley downgrades, reclassifies Nigeria’s index to stand alone

Joseph Irikefe

Morgan Stanley Capital International, (a provider of benchmark indexes and multi-portfolio analysis tools) announced the reclassification of MSCI Nigeria indexes from Frontier Markets to Standalone Market Status.

This means MSCI will delete each Nigerian security from the MSCI Frontier Markets Indexes at a price that is effectively zero.

This comes after FTSE Russell reclassified Nigeria’s equity country classification to unclassified from frontier markets on September 8, 2023.

The implication for Nigeria is that whoever brings in his money is on his own due to persistent fx liquidity issues and difficulty in repatriating investments. This is in spite of the CBN’s assurances that foreign investors will be able to repatriate their funds after investing in Nigeria.

The MSCI Nigeria Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Nigerian market.