Approximately GH¢30 billion in pension funds locked-up in government investments – Basheer

An amount of approximately GH¢30 billion in pensions funds are at the present, locked-up in government investments, the Managing Director of Tesah Capital Limited, Eugenia Basheer, has revealed.

According to the investment expert, these funds have the potential to support the country’s economic growth if diversified across key and strategic sectors.

Making her submission during a forum organized by Accra-based Citi TV, the Tesah Capital boss cited that foreign countries, for instance, have the appetite for investing in Ghana’s pensions funds as they have proven to yield the intended benefits.

The forum was on the theme; ‘Clarity in the Chaos: What Lies Ahead for the Ghanaian Economy?’

“Today we have pension funds of over 30 billion, where is it sitting? Unfortunately, I’m sure 70 to 80% is sitting on government paper. There are different sizes to this. Do you blame the investors or the pension fund holders for investing in these instruments?

“The first time I saw the Pension Act before it was passed into law, I thought yes, this is going to drive growth in Ghana because when you look at other economies, that is what has happened. We see pension funds from other economies and even in Africa coming to Ghana to invest here because they’ve grown the pension to the extent that they can invest outside their country,” Eugenia Basheer is quoted by citinewsroom.com.

The investment expert therefore called on relevant stakeholders in the investments space to adopt measures aimed at diversifying the funds into critical sectors of the economy to stimulate and propel economic recovery.

MA/AE