Browsing: pension funds in Africa

• AfDB is eyeing $2.3 trillion in sovereign wealth funds, strategic investment funds, pensions, and life insurance assets.
• The AfDB wants to unlock the potential of various wealth funds in Africa.
• Lender is now seeking set up of the African Sovereign Wealth Funds secretariat.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is calling for unity to drive investments by mobilizing capital in Africa currently held in various funds and estimated at estimated at $2.3 trillion. This massive capital in Africa is in sovereign wealth funds, strategic investment funds, pensions, and life insurance assets.

Speaking at the Second Annual Meeting of the Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF), AFDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialisation Solomon Quaynor said the Bank is committed to supporting the establishment and operations of the African Sovereign Wealth Funds secretariat.

ASIF was launched in June 2022 by a group of 10 African sovereign wealth funds with a goal …

Zimbabwe’s dual economy, the formal and informal sectors, have become two distinct economies in Zimbabwe. With the former vulnerable to complex tax regimes and inconsistent monetary policies, the latter has no regard for both.

In some circles, the informal sector has been referred to as the grey economy, shadow economy, underground economy, parallel sector, and the cash economy.

• Econet Life, an EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe insurance unit, has launched a unique micro-pension fund product that allows people in the informal sector to save for retirement
• The new product, called Dura/Isiphala Pension Fund, was launched in Kariba at the weekend and is expected to drive the uptake of pensions by workers in the informal sector
• Meanwhile, on March 27, 2019, President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari launched the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) as part of his administration’s efforts to ensure that Nigerians who worked hard during their active years in service of their

The slow growth in the retirement benefits assets in Kenya in the second half of 2020 has been attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Retirement Benefits Authority Chief Executive Officer Nzomo Mutuku revealed the sector only grew by 5.77 percent from Sh1.322 trillion to Sh1.398 trillion, owing to the pandemic which adversely affected the financial markets and the wider economy in the first half of last year.

Major consequences of the pandemic in the country include massive job losses, which put contribution towards retirement schemes under pressure.

Mutuku said that fund managers and approved issuers in the country held majority of the assets amounting to Sh1.286 trillion.

During the period under review, Mutuku revealed that schemes continued to invest heavily in government securities with the asset class accounting for 44 percent of the total assets under management.

This was followed by immovable property which accounted for 17 percent, investments in guaranteed …