Billions of dollars of African national capital idle in pension funds”, say experts

Africa has more than $165 billion of domestic capital readily available to drive the continent’s development and reduce its dependence on volatile external sources of finance, participants at a session of the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings heard on Thursday.

Senior executives from leading African financial institutions presented compelling evidence that challenged long-held assumptions about the scarcity of capital on the continent at a high-level roundtable entitled: “Making the most of Africa’s capital to foster its development in a context of heightened economic challenges”.

The roundtable, moderated by Hassatou N’Sele, African Development Bank Group Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer, was part of the main knowledge-sharing events organized during the Bank Group’s 2025 Annual Meetings.

Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, made a striking revelation: “In West Africa alone, between Ghana and Nigeria, we have pension funds worth almost $40 billion that are placing over 90% of their assets under management in government securities, on the pretext that they have no investment opportunities.”

Ms. Amoah revealed that by 2024, Africans had invested $125 billion in crypto assets, with Nigeria alone contributing over $65 billion, making it the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency investor base after India.

source: agence ecofin