Foreign portfolio investment and Nigerian bond market development

Abstract

The study examined the contribution of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) towards financing Nigeria infrastructural deficits and determined the factors that attract FPI into the Nigerian bond market. It also examined the relationship between FPI and bond yield in Nigeria. Primary data were obtained through administration of questionnaires to directors of finance, chief finance officers and investment officers of 128 firms out of 271 firms in financial and manufacturing sectors of the Nigerian economy. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 100 stock broking firms that were controlling 90% of the secondary bond market trading activities while purposive sampling technique was used to select the existing 18 primary dealers and market makers and 10 non-financial institutions that had raised fund in the domestic bond market within the study period. Secondary data on bond index, bond market capitalization, real interest rate, real exchange rate, inflation rate, gross domestic product, external debt and external reserve were obtained from publications of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive statistics such as line graphs, bar charts and simple percentages; and inferential statistics which was mainly multiple regression analysis. The results showed that there was no FPI in the bond market until 2003 when the federal government through the Debt Management Office issued the first FGN Bond series. In addition, between 2003 and 2011, the contribution of the FPI to long term funds in the bond market was 10% of the total bond market capitalization which was considered very low. Interest rate (85%), Gross domestic product (90%), bond market capitalization (91%), inflation rate (89%) and external reserve (95%) were found to be major factors that attracted FPI into the Nigerian bond market as stated by the respondents. Finally, the results showed that there was a significant relationship between FPI and bond yield (r = 0.44, p< 0.05). The study concluded that factors attracting foreign investors into the bond market in Nigeria are critical and if well managed by policy makers could enhance the attraction of FPI needed for financing infrastructural projects through the Nigerian bond market