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Pension assets to GDP

Africa’s pension fund assets

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), assets in pension funds continued to grow throughout 2020, growing by 11% from the end of 2019 to a reported USD56 trillion as of the end of 2020.

Foreword Pension funds and social security Early adopters of technology Africa’s pension fund assets Conclusion

Pension assets to GDP

A standard measure used to determine the significance of pension assets to a country’s economy is pension assets to GDP. For OECD countries, pension assets have increased faster than GDP (in nominal terms) over the last decade, rising from 64% in 2010 to 103% in 2020.

Our review uses a sample of 10 countries, representing approximately 81% of Africa’s 2020 GDP as measured by The World Bank. It comprises those countries with significant economic influence in each region.

Africa Pension Fund Assets: GDP

Country Currency Year AUM (USD) million GDP (WB 2020) million AUM as % GDP
Nigeria NGN 2020 USD32.300m USD432.294m 7%
South Africa ZAR 2020 USD227.000m USD335.442m 68%
Egypt EGP 2020 USD5.655m USD365.253m 2%
Kenya KES 2020 USD12.834m USD100.667m 13%
Tanzania TZS 2020 USD3.751m USD62.410m 6%
Mauritius MUR 2020 USD3.202m USD432.294m 29%
Namibia NAD 2020 USD12.245m USD10.563m 116%
Botswana BWP 2020 USD9.748m USD14.930m 65%
Zambia ZMK 2020 USD448.000m USD18.111m 2%
Ghana GHS 2020 USD5.680m USD70.043m 8%

Source: Regulatory annual reports, The World Bank, RisCura

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Africa’s pension industry

The latest Bright Africa Pensions research highlights the measures required to improve future pension coverage for economically active Africans.

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Foreword

Where pensions systems exist across most of Africa, they do so against a backdrop of elevated levels of informality in labour markets. The result is that the pension contributions outside of the public sector are intermittent and relatively low.

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Pension funds and social security

The standard narrative across the continent is of a small percentage of the population in formal employment for whom social security is possible.

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