People’s Pension Trust (PPT) has received funding of up to GBP 500,000 from FSD Africa Investments to expand pension coverage and access to informal workers in Ghana. This will be done by developing innovative approaches, specifically designed to foster inclusion in financial and social protection systems.

The funding will enable People’s Pension Trust to innovate through behavioral science, human-centered design, data analytics and artificial intelligence, ultimately developing groundbreaking pension products that meet the needs and aspirations of underserved constituents such as smallholder farmers, drivers, market women, head porters – among others.

This continued partnership with FSD Africa Investments provides the necessary runway for PPT to address old-age poverty, especially among women that are most vulnerable. Through financial literacy programmes and pension education coupled with incentive-led push for savings, PPT aims to impact economic growth by helping maintain the push for savings despite the covid-19 pandemic.

“At FSD Africa Investments, we work to reduce poverty by supporting innovative propositions touching on the financial sector that we believe will transform Africa’s financial markets.”

Anna Marie-Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa Investments, said: “The PPT story is one such proposition that touches on micro-pension and by extension savings and we believe will have significant impact in the lives of Ghana’s informal workers and possibly go beyond the borders to the many who could use the same service across Africa.”

Saqib Nazir, Chief Executive Officer of People’s Pension Trust, on his part, said, “Our ambition is now to scale and to replicate our business model across the region, providing millions of informal sector workers with pension cover over the next few years. Securing this investment from FSD Africa Investments is therefore a significant step to making this possible. It certainly gives us a positive outlook for the coming years as we work to ensure that no one is left behind in the financial inclusion agenda.”

In addition, the PPT team will focus on regulatory engagements to drive policy change and the inclusion of global best practices and industry trends, accelerating real progress for our members.