Veteran economist and investment consultant Kwame Pianim has urged Ghanaians to redirect the country’s massive pension fund reserves into infrastructure development, arguing that Ghana already has the capital it needs to transform its economy and is wasting it.
Speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse to mark Ghana’s 69th Independence Day, Pianim said the funds were sitting idle when they could be driving railways, inland ports, and agricultural development.
“The pension funds are sitting on about 110 billion — sitting in the bank,” he said.
“All we need is to make sure that our pension funds, our insurance companies, are Ghanaian-owned because those are the funds you need to build infrastructure.”
Ghana’s pension assets have ballooned to over GH¢86.4 billion, yet over 80% of these assets remain parked in short-term treasury bills and government bonds with maturities under three years, exactly the kind of conservative, low-impact deployment Pianim is rallying against.
Ghana’s pension funds currently utilise only 4.4% of the permitted 25% limit for alternative investments like infrastructure, lagging behind peers like Nigeria, which deploys 34% of its cap, and South Africa, which allocates around 8% under its own ceiling.
The government has taken some steps to address this.
A May 2025 government directive encouraged pension funds and insurers to allocate at least 5% of assets to private equity and venture capital by 2026, signalling a push toward mobilising long-term domestic capital for development.
But Pianim’s remarks suggest such measures are still far short of the bold redeployment Ghana needs.
Pianim is a member of President John Mahama’s Presidential Advisory Group on the Economy, announced on January 15, 2026.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com