Concerto Financial Solutions, an independent provider of capital market indices and data, has announced it will include local currency government bonds from Côte d’Ivoire in its African Bond Index series (CABI).

Michael Abraham, Managing Partner at Concerto, said this decision is consistent with the results presented in the Concerto 2014 African Country Evaluation Report for determining the index eligibility of the African countries and their sovereign debt.

“Our index is rules based and thus requires that numerous criteria be met for index inclusion and Côte d’Ivoire has now shown that it has fulfilled/surpassed the requirements as documented in our Country Evaluation Report published in the latter portion of 2014,” he told Africa Global Funds.

The evaluation process was originally developed in cooperation with an African development bank and has been continuously updated and refined with improved data sources.

Côte d’Ivoire is an important economy power in West Africa and its ranking in the evaluation report has improved significantly this past year.

In terms of macroeconomic development Côte d’Ivoire rose 36 positions and now scores 10th in Africa with a GDP growth rate of over 6%.

The resumption of bond issuing activity ensured that Côte d’Ivoire rose 15 places and now ranks 9th in Africa for this category following Kenya and ahead of Zambia.

Currently there is an equivalent of $2.5bn outstanding in local currency government bonds.

Abraham said the Ivory Coast has undergone tremendous changes in the past year.

“After the governmental changes that have taken place a higher degree of political stability has returned to Côte d’Ivoire and the country’s economy has picked up significantly. Companies/Organizations that fled the Ivory Coast have or are returning,” he said.

From April 1, 2015, Concerto will publish daily Côte d’Ivoire local currency bond indices in CFA Franc.

The indices will also be available in USD, EUR and ZAR and several maturity indices will be produced.

The Côte d’Ivoire indices will be comprised of 18 local currency domestic bonds which also feed into the Western African and the Pan-African bond indices.

The index will be launched on April, 1 from a level of 100, so there is no performance data available.

"However from the view of a South African investor (ZAR-based) our Western Africa Regional Index, which was started in 2010 at 100 is now at nearly 170 and in Euro the same index is close to 140," stressed Abraham.

From April there will be 13 countries in the index: Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.

Every Concerto Index is produced daily and is calculated in local currency as well as in US-Dollar, Euro and South African Rand.