By Shruti Menon Seeboo
The palm-fringed shores of Mauritius provided a tranquil setting for a remarkably intense dialogue during the PIAfrica conference on the 11th and 12th of February 2026. At the heart of these discussions was Shafeeq Abrahams, the Chief Executive and Principal Officer of the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF). As he navigated the Hilton Mauritius Resort, engaging with fellow institutional investors, his message was clear: the traditional dichotomy between fiduciary duty and social responsibility is rapidly dissolving. Managing one of the largest retirement funds in Africa, Abrahams is overseeing a philosophical transition from passive risk management to active, impact-driven stewardship. For Abrahams, the mandate is no longer just about securing a pension; it is about ensuring that the world in which those pensions are spent remains a viable, prosperous, and equitable one.
The challenge of modern fund management, particularly in the current macroeconomic climate, lies in the delicate equilibrium between immediate performance and long-term sustainability. When asked how the EPPF practically balances the rigorous demands of its members with the necessity of investing in sustainable infrastructure like clean energy and affordable housing, Abrahams describes a methodology that is as much about mathematical precision as it is about social vision. “So our view and our approach is threefold, right, fourfold, so we look at the risk, can we get the return, can we get the impact and what cost are we going to pay for it, and we try to find and blend all four elements to find the right decision or right investments that will direct us, that will help us achieve our goals,” he explains.
By treating these four elements as inseparable pillars of the decision-making process, the EPPF seeks to transcend the limitations of conventional pension fund management. Abrahams notes that “we think of ourselves as an impact investor, beyond just managing risk, but we’re looking both for return and impact, which is a different philosophy and approach that pension funds usually take up.” This shift is not merely cosmetic; it is a fundamental re-engineering of the investment engine. The traditional “two-lens” approach of risk and return is being replaced by a multi-dimensional perspective where the social and environmental outcome of an investment is considered a primary indicator of its long-term health and viability.
This philosophy of “impact without sacrificing return” is particularly relevant within the context of private markets, a major theme of the Mauritius summit. For the EPPF, private equity and credit are not merely asset classes for diversification; they are instruments for continental development. However, deploying capital across Africa requires a nuanced understanding of the unique complexities inherent in emerging economies. Abrahams is candid about the hurdles, citing regulatory uncertainty and foreign exchange volatility as primary concerns. “As part of our investment strategy, private markets is a critical part of that investment strategy, one, two, the continent is part of that, and private equity in general is therefore part of that,” he emphasises.
In assessing these opportunities, the Fund remains vigilant regarding the risk of capital taking a long time to return. Abrahams elaborates on the criteria: “So what we are looking for is first the attractiveness of the project, one, then using risk, return and cost, two, we’re looking for the impact, three, we’re looking for the partner we’re going to back, and then in assessing risk we also want to look at the risk of generating returns, the risk of governance matters, but also the risk of capital going out and taking a long time to come back. And that could be because investment proposals don’t materialise as planned, asset fund managers maybe want to have a longer lifespan on the vehicle and move from a limited to an extended lifespan.”
The liquidity of African markets remains a significant focal point for the EPPF’s leadership. Unlike more mature secondary markets in Europe or North America, the African landscape often requires a more patient, hands-on approach to exit strategies. Abrahams is direct about the friction points: “Three, what we experience on the continent is regulatory uncertainty and foreign exchange uncertainty. So we must be able to take our money out when it’s time for us to do that. At the same time there’s also liquidity issues in the sense that the secondary market is not developed well enough to be able to exit, so exit strategies become much more at the forefront.” Despite these challenges, he remains optimistic, asserting that “if we can find the right foot on all of that we can find opportunity.”
The EPPF’s evolution is perhaps most visible in its approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) integration. Abrahams views the ESG spectrum as a journey of increasing intentionality. “If you look at the spectrum of investing, only sustainable investing, then you can say at the very minimum an investor can say I don’t care about any environmental sustainability, also social indicators, I just invest for maximum return. Another extreme is you have impact investors who are investing for impact and returns both, right, and managing risk. And somewhere in the middle you have ESG from a risk and governance perspective, that you must assess the risk affected in your pricing, returns and expectations, right,” he observes.
The EPPF firmly occupies the latter space of the impact investor. Abrahams explains that “EPPF sees itself as an impact investor, we hire up that order and like I said, we are looking not just for return, we’re looking for the impact as well, but not impact without the return. We have a fiduciary responsibility to look at that.” This is not merely about avoiding “bad” assets; it is about a proactive commitment to environmental regeneration and the dismantling of social and spatial injustices. “Our approach and philosophy is to be an impact investor, hire up the spectrum. We’ve codified that into what we call a sustainable investment policy, which says that we, and it’s not about managing risk, but we want to regenerate and invest for prosperity of mankind as well,” Abrahams says.
This policy is a structured framework focused on three core areas. “We’re looking at environmental issues, climate justice, but moving to environmental regeneration into the future. Two, we’re looking at social injustices, and we’re also looking at spatial injustices, right, and how we invest in infrastructure to address that,” he details. As a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the EPPF has committed to a decarbonised portfolio by 2050. This is a monumental task for a fund historically linked to the energy sector, but Abrahams views it as an essential evolution. “We are a net zero asset owner signature, and we have a commitment to decarbonise our portfolio, well not to decarbonise, to achieve net zero status by 2050. And so we’re working hard in terms of that process, which means that we have to work on certain investments right now, and with emitters, carbon emitters right now to engage and get to tangible action plans that will help us achieve our goals by 2050.”
Implementing such a sophisticated strategy requires more than just capital; it requires a high level of expertise at the governance level. Strengthening trustee capacity has been a strategic priority for Abrahams. He believes that to be an impact investor, the philosophy must start with the trustees themselves. “Maybe the first thing is that to be able to be an impact investor and to have a sustainable investment approach starts with the trustees. It’s their epitome of philosophy,” he remarks. The EPPF has undertaken extensive initiatives to ensure that its decision-makers are equipped to evaluate complex alternative investments. “We have to capacitate them on what sustainable investment means, what does net zero commitment mean, what does social impact mean. And that needs to be, so our trustees have gone through all of that. So we’ve done the training, it’s net zero asset owner, they need to understand that commitment, and then we commit to this process,” Abrahams explains.
This internal growth is supported by a robust professional framework both within and outside the Fund. “Our policy hardwires their philosophy and interest and commitment to becoming an impact investor. Now that’s supported by an in-house team and an external team,” Abrahams says. “So we have an in-house team that specialises in infrastructure, specialises in private markets amongst others, listed etc. But we complement that team with asset managers externally as well. So we have, we work with many players on the continent and globally and locally inside Africa on infrastructure for example, or climate resilient infrastructure.”
This collaborative model allows trustees to navigate the specialized and complex areas of engineering and government relations that are inherent in long-dated infrastructure projects. As Abrahams puts it, “trustees have access to skills, knowledge and expertise both internally and externally. I think that helps us move through the barriers of investment, or barriers of investment in infrastructure because infrastructure is a long dated type of asset. There are lots of risks and lots of concerns around putting money out for the long term. But it’s also a very specialised and complex area of engineering, government etc. And so trustees don’t have readily accessible, access to such skills and complexity of the system. So you have to complement this through what we call our ecosystem, internal and external skill that we have.”
Accountability is the final piece of the EPPF’s strategic puzzle. In an era of increased scrutiny, the Fund is maturing its reporting frameworks to align with global standards. Abrahams acknowledges the complexity: “Then the last part is that as we commit to this process you must be able to account and report in line with proofs, whether it’s the GRI, Global Import Investment, whether it’s IFRS, local stock exchange regulations. And so we are in that process of finalising our reporting process, adopting methods that are fit for purpose, or frameworks that are fit for purpose for now, but also maturing our accountability and reporting our opinion of the party.” He admits that “that also is a challenge in itself because you need access to data, you need systems, and you also need almost another accounting system for sustaining the accounting which comes with costs. And so it’s a journey of building that reporting framework that speaks to our commitment to demand stewards account for this commitment of ensuring a sustainable future.”
Looking toward the future of Africa’s rising institutional investor power, Abrahams identifies several critical policy and market reforms that would unlock further capital for the continent. Chief among these is the need for regulatory certainty and political leadership. “The first thing we need is we must be able to have confidence in the regulatory framework and the political leadership to create that confidence. So if we are going to have confidence on policies, those policies must be expressed and we need confidence that regulators won’t step away from it in the future. So where we convert our capital, we want to convert it into a regulatory environment that’s certain,” he argues.
Beyond regulation, Abrahams sees public-private partnerships as the primary vehicle for developing infrastructure. “The second thing is we need to be able to leverage skill that can develop this infrastructure and therefore we believe that public-private partnerships are the vehicles to do that. Three, we want transparency to that project and those cash flows and its impact. And therefore we lack vehicles that enable that transparency and dedication.”
Furthermore, he advocates for a more integrated ecosystem of investors. “Finally, so the final thing is there are many interested investors with different risk appetites and different roles to be played. Whether it’s government, TFI’s, institutional capital. We need to be able to blend this ecosystem of investors to work together and collaborate. So whether TFI’s start with the early stage development, take first loss risk, pension funds create secondary market because we lack the certainty of those cash flows. We participate in the secondary market or somewhere along that value chain or project life cycle.” This collaboration, Abrahams believes, is the “critical ingredient for success on the continent.” Under his leadership, the EPPF is proving that a pension fund can be more than a repository for savings; it can be a powerful engine for continental renewal.
