Ghana is increasingly being recognised as one of Africa’s most credible examples of how domestic pension savings can be invested in more diverse alternatives and channelled into assets such as private equity, venture capital and SME growth financing.

Ghana has spearheaded notable pension industry initiatives focused on shifting domestic capital pools towards the real economy, including GVCA’s 5% Pension and Insurance Industry Compact, launched in April 2025, Impact Investing Ghana’s Pension Industry Collaborative, and the $70m SME Fund of Funds managed by Savannah Impact Advisory, Ci Gaba.

The fund is structured to invest in private equity and venture funds, adding value through portfolios of small, growing businesses across West Africa.

Last month marked an important milestone for African pension funds, as Ghana hosted the 7th Africa Pension Supervisors Association (APSA) Conference in Accra. Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang officially opened the conference, hosted by Ghana’s National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), which convened pension regulators, policymakers, industry leaders, development partners and delegates from across Africa to discuss the future of pension systems on the continent.

The Vice President called for more inclusive and resilient pension systems capable of meeting the needs of Africa’s ageing population while expanding retirement protection to workers in the informal sector.

At a recent pension industry capacity-building event, GVCA highlighted a regional mapping published by Growth Firms Alliance (GFA), reflecting a broader shift across Africa, as institutional investors have been moving beyond traditional government bonds and real estate into productive alternative assets that support long-term business expansion, salaried job creation, pension and tax contributions, as well as economic transformation.

Ghana’s pension investment guidelines permit up to 25 percent of pension assets to be invested in alternative instruments, creating one of the continent’s more enabling frameworks for institutional participation in private capital.

The Ci Gaba Fund of Funds structure combined pension trustee engagement, local-currency fund design, catalytic first-loss capital and technical assistance to move investors from interest to actual commitments.

Similar approaches are emerging elsewhere on the continent, including Uganda’s National Social Security Fund acting as an anchor investor in the Yield Uganda Investment Fund and Rwanda’s Social Security Board anchoring SME-focused investment vehicles.

Ghana’s pension reforms began with the establishment of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority in 2008, progressed through the expansion of alternative investment limits in 2021, and have now produced a growing pipeline of pension-backed private equity and SME funds.

The mapping identifies this progression as one of the clearest examples of domestic institutional capital moving from policy ambition to deployment.

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