A regulatory nudge in Accra is quietly redrawing the map of who funds growth companies in West Africa — and a new class of financial intermediaries is moving fast to position itself between Ghana’s pension savings and private markets.

At the centre of this shift is Ci-Gaba Fund, a Ghana-domiciled fund of funds that has reached a first close of its planned $75m vehicle, backed in part by a $7.5m commitment from FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), a UK government–backed financial sector investor. The structure is designed with a clear objective: make it easier — and more compliant — for Ghanaian pension funds to channel capital into private equity (PE) and private debt across Ghana and West Africa.

The timing is not accidental.

The policy trigger: Ghana’s 5% directive

In 2025, Ghana’s government signalled a decisive policy shift: pension and insurance funds are expected to allocate at least 5% of assets under management to venture capital and private equity by 2026. The move, announced under the Ghana Venture Capital and Private Equity Compact, is meant to steer long-term domestic capital towards SMEs and high-growth sectors such as fintech, agribusiness, energy and technology.

The contrast with the status quo is stark. While regulations already allowed pension schemes to put up to 25% into alternative assets, actual exposure has remained below 1%, with portfolios heavily concentrated in government securities. Policymakers argue this has limited both returns and the availability of patient capital for businesses.

“Venture capital offers not just funding but expertise and innovation support — something traditional banks, with rigid collateral requirements, have struggled to provide,” a senior finance ministry official said at the Compact’s launch, framing the policy as part of Ghana’s broader industrialisation and AfCFTA strategy.

The message to the market was clear: domestic institutional capital should play a bigger role in financing Ghana’s productive economy. Total pension assets are projected to surpass 100 billion GHS (~$8.3 billion) by the end of 2025. A 5% mandate could unlock roughly $330 million in growth capital for local firms.

A Breakdown of the Market Shift

Why fund-of-funds are emerging as gatekeepers

For pension trustees, the directive creates a problem as much as an opportunity. Most schemes lack in-house capacity to assess VC and PE managers, manage currency risk or structure governance for illiquid assets. That gap is where vehicles like Ci-Gaba come in.

Ci-Gaba is structured as a blended-finance fund of funds, investing in a portfolio of underlying PE and private debt managers — both established and emerging — across sectors including financial services, healthcare, agriculture, clean energy, education and technology. It is managed by Savannah Impact Advisory, a Ghana-based investment manager, and sponsored by Impact Investing Ghana.

FSDAi says its role has gone beyond writing a cheque. According to its chief investment officer, the investor worked on the design and underwriting of a vehicle aligned with local regulatory requirements and governance standards, with the aim of giving pension funds confidence to enter alternative assets.

The first close reportedly exceeded an initial $30m target, with Ghanaian pension funds providing more than two-thirds of commitments — a sign that local institutions are testing the waters, albeit through structured vehicles rather than direct fund investments.

Domestic capital, domestic constraints

The push to mobilise pension money at home is happening alongside tighter scrutiny of capital flowing out.

Ghana’s pension industry, with tens of billions of cedis under management, has grown steadily since reforms introduced a multi-tier system with private managers overseeing part of contributions. But after the country’s recent debt restructuring and pressure on the cedi, regulators have taken a cautious stance on offshore investments by private pension managers, citing liquidity and currency concerns.

That backdrop strengthens the policy case for redirecting institutional capital into domestic and regional private markets — and makes locally domiciled structures more politically and regulatorily attractive than offshore funds.

For fund sponsors, this is a rare alignment of incentives:

• Government wants SME financing and economic diversification.
• Regulators want capital to stay onshore.
• Pension funds need new sources of return.

Fund-of-funds managers are positioning themselves as the mechanism that satisfies all three.

A crowded field of “capital unlockers”

Ci-Gaba is part of a broader pattern: development finance institutions (DFIs), impact platforms and local advisory firms are increasingly building intermediary vehicles designed specifically to “unlock” pension and insurance capital.

FMO, the Dutch development bank, has previously supported the Ci-Gaba manager, citing objectives that include helping cover operational costs during the early life of the platform and building the internal capacity required to manage institutional money. UK-backed programmes such as RISA have also supported the ecosystem-building work around Ghana’s fund-of-funds model.

The development logic is consistent: early concessional or catalytic capital absorbs some risk, demonstrates performance, and eventually draws in commercial institutional investors at scale.

But this wave of structures also reflects a commercial reality. Ghana’s 5% expectation represents a sizeable, predictable pool of capital that must be placed somewhere. Intermediaries able to meet regulatory, reporting and governance thresholds stand to become long-term fixtures in the market.

Risks beneath the optimism

Not everyone is convinced the transition will be smooth.

Pension funds are inherently conservative, and the move into illiquid, higher-risk assets comes after years in which local portfolios were hit by sovereign debt restructuring and currency volatility. Trustees will be under pressure to justify both performance and risk management.

There is also a capacity question on the supply side. The success of the policy depends on the quality of underlying fund managers and deal pipelines. If too much capital chases too few investable businesses, returns could disappoint — undermining confidence in alternatives just as the ecosystem is being built.

Analysts also note that while fund-of-funds structures reduce manager selection risk for pension schemes, they add another layer of fees and complexity, making net returns a critical test.

A structural experiment in local capital markets

Still, Ghana’s approach is being watched across the region. Many African economies face the same paradox: growing pools of domestic savings on one side, persistent financing gaps for SMEs on the other.

If vehicles like Ci-Gaba can demonstrate that local pension money can be deployed into private markets with acceptable governance, transparency and returns, the model could spread beyond Ghana.

For now, the combination of a policy mandate and a new generation of structured intermediaries has created a clear trend: institutional investors are being steered toward private markets, and specialist fund platforms are lining up to absorb the flow.

The real test will come not at first close, but several years from now — when pension trustees and contributors judge whether this new allocation of retirement savings delivered both impact and performance.