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The Founder and Senior Partner of AB & David Africa, Dr David Ofosu-Dorte, has advised the government to look inward and tap into the over GH¢200 billion pension fund assets to finance long-term infrastructure development instead of relying heavily on foreign borrowing.
He said pension funds represented patient capital with long-term maturity horizons, making them ideal for infrastructure investments that required time to yield returns.
More importantly, he argued that using local funds would eliminate the currency mismatch associated with dollar-denominated loans, which burdened government with exchange rate risks and ballooning debt.
“When you borrow from outside, you pay in dollars but collect revenue in cedis, that’s a currency mismatch. Why don’t we rather use our own pension funds, pay cedis and invest cedis? We don’t need to amend any law, the regulations already make provision for this,” Dr Ofosu-Dorte said.
He said this at the opening of the Ghana Investment and Trade Week Summit (GITW) which was held in Accra today (July 2).
The GITW is a three- day business fair organised by the MIE Group in collaboration with Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI).
The event aims to attract key source markets from Asia, the Middle East and Europe, providing a platform to explore Ghana's vast investment opportunities.
“These are patient capital. The people retiring on those funds will do so in 20 to 30 years. Why borrow dollars for infrastructure when you can use pension funds and pay back in cedis?” he queried.
Dr Ofosu-Dorte emphasised that the country’s infrastructure financing needs estimated at $22 billion annually—close to half of the country’s GDP—could not be met by the public sector alone.
He said collaboration with the private sector through structured public-private partnerships (PPPs) was the only realistic way forward.
“The private sector is not Father Christmas. They will invest only if the structure is right and the risks are balanced. So, the public sector must not only promote projects but also avoid undermining them,” he said.
Dr Ofosu-Dorte also mentioned that public-sector inconsistency had repeatedly sabotaged investment opportunities.
He warned that political interference and frequent leadership changes often derailed well-structured projects.
“A simple announcement to cancel road tolls once drove away seven investors. I was at the table and I know what happened,” he revealed.
He urged the government to stop spending borrowed money on full feasibility studies for projects that were intended to be delivered by the private sector, saying no investor would adopt and implement such studies.
“All the public sector needs to do is a project concept or a pre-feasibility study. Let the private investor conduct the full feasibility. That way, we don’t waste time or resources, especially during election transitions,” he advised.
The President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahohoo Yaw Gyebi II, also called for honesty and discipline among contractors and project managers, especially in the final years of political administrations.
“Let us be careful in accepting contracts that have not been budgeted for. This is how we end up with unpaid arrears,” he warned.
He stressed that with smart planning, honesty, and collaboration, the country could build resilient infrastructure to anchor its industrial and economic transformation.
