By Shruti Menon Seeboo
The traditional frameworks governing African pension funds, which were originally designed for strict capital preservation with a heavy bias towards safe government securities, have served their purpose but now act as a binding constraint on continental growth. Speaking at the 7th Annual Africa Pension Funds and Retirement Summit 2026 in Mauritius, Muyangwa Muyangwa, the Director General of the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) in Zambia, challenged the industry to radically shift its perspective on domestic capital. Managing approximately $6 billion in assets as of the first quarter of 2026, NAPSA represents Zambia’s largest public pension fund and stands as an emerging force in Southern Africa. While formal sector pension coverage captures just under 10 per cent of Zambia’s working-age population, Muyangwa views this coverage gap not as a failure, but as a catalyst for future mobilisation. “Most more importantly, I think it presents an opportunity for growth for the scheme in terms of capacity to mobilise capital domestic,” Muyangwa explained, urging the summit to focus on “what is possible when the public pension fund sees itself as a critical leap up to unlocking the latent economic potential of the nation.”
To demonstrate this potential in practical terms, Muyangwa shared the concrete milestones NAPSA has already secured on the ground by committing close to a billion dollars of Zambian capital directly into critical road and energy infrastructure. This includes a $300 million contribution toward a 327-kilometre dual-carriage railroad project designed to strengthen regional trade connectivity, alongside $645 million invested in the energy sector to contribute 1.5 gigawatts to the national grid. “These are not pilot projects. These are operational investments, delivering returns for our members while building the infrastructure necessary for Zambia’s economic transformation,” Muyangwa stated. Because Zambia sits at the geographic heart of the SADC and COMESA trade corridors, these strategic investments naturally cross borders. “The road and energy investment we have for us and continued finance not only address the national agenda but our building blocks the connected region and the continent as a whole,” he observed. “Our investment agenda at Napsa is therefore not only national, it is regional and continental.”
This model answers a pressing continental dilemma marked by an annual infrastructure financing gap of $50 to $90 billion. It has become “apparently clear to us as Africa that official development assistance and foreign direct investment alone are too temperamental to provide the capital needed to build this gap,” Muyangwa argued. Instead, he pointed to the $1.1 trillion held in domestic institutional capital across the continent, noting that pension capital is uniquely suited to bridge this divide. “Our long duration obligations naturally match infrastructure cash flows,” he explained. “That is, asset liability matching working exactly as it should be.” For Muyangwa, the developmental case and the fiduciary case are entirely synchronised: “Improved development dividends will translate in more jobs or employment opportunities, therefore, more members and contributions to our skills, thereby, more capital to develop, to finance further… It is therefore a no-brainer, and there is no better way to assure ourselves of the continued success of our business model as patient part.”
The barrier preventing this capital deployment is not a lack of funds, but the absence of formalised mechanisms and “leadership unwill” to design the necessary architecture. “The architecture that we design should be characterised by standardisation and appropriately risk mitigated bankable project pipelines, appropriate blended finance structures and a harmonised regulatory environment,” Muyangwa stated, warning that “without that, the U.S. dollar 1.1 trillion remains only but an idle and untapped potential forever.” To counter this, the Africa Social Security Association (ASA) is actively working to establish an infrastructure fund and is collaborating with the African Development Bank to host an upcoming summit in Abidjan focused on transforming regulatory frameworks.
Looking inward, Muyangwa called for an honest discussion regarding the regulatory constraints that restrict funds. “Most of us, our pension funds regulatory frameworks, improving that of my own country, Zambia, were designed for capital preservation with a heavy weighting towards the safety of government securities, while placing very tight concerns on investing in the different assets,” he acknowledged. “These frameworks or agree have served their purpose. They are now a binding constraint on infrastructure development.” While NAPSA currently lacks regulatory authorization to invest offshore, Muyangwa advocated for a fundamental shift in how cross-border investments are categorised, asking: “Should intra-African investment be treated the same as investing in global development markets? I think that NAPSA, for active bias, it should not.” Instead, he suggested starting with “bespoke, harmonised regional economic group infringement, such as SADC and COMESA” to create “defined pathways for cross-border patient co-investment.”
Ultimately, the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area hinges entirely on expanding transport and energy infrastructure. To accelerate this momentum, Muyangwa issued a bold call to action to the delegates: “Show us the bankable project and the pension funds will show you the capital.” This includes a commitment to a continental regulatory compact by 2027 and the co-development of a vetted project pipeline to reduce the due diligence burden on individual funds.
In closing, the NAPSA Director General committed to hosting a structured dialogue in Zambia in February 2027 to translate these continental frameworks into action. “Every fund in this room carries a trust of workers who contribute every month and expect those savings to be there when they need them,” Muyangwa concluded. “Honouring that trust, financing Africa’s infrastructure are not competing objectives. They are the same objective. Africa’s pension funds hold the capital. Africa’s people need the infrastructure. Upside here because we believe that the existing distance came and must be closed in our lifetime.”
