Tapping into private pension funds to secure investment capital will be one of the primary discussion points at an upcoming conference in Botswana.
It’s not the first time in recent days that headlines have revealed the intention of certain governments and governing parties to access pension savings through legislative measures.
If it ever happened private fund administrators could be forced to invest in parastatals like Transnet, Eskom and SAA, and it’s not too difficult to imagine why this is a consideration of South Africa’s governing party.
The ANC’s recent announcement during the launch of its election manifesto that it would be investigating the possibility of prescribing certain assets had an immediate reaction and led to constitutional expert Pierre de Vos warning that it would be a clear violation of personal property rights enshrined in the constitution.
Now, according to The Voice in Gaborone, one of Africa’s most stable and surging economies is veering in the same direction and has prominent venture investment groups leading the way.
MN Capital Group and African Alternative will host the summit on 20 February and private pension fund investment potential is firmly in the conference’s crosshairs.
Commenting on the trend for pension funds to move investments offshore, MN managing director Michael Ndinisa said “we know that a lot of money is taken out of the country instead of us getting more direct investments”.
In what appears to be a conference aimed at considering ways and means to proscribe against offshore investing, Ndinisa said representatives from the Development Bank of Southern Africa and African Development Bank had been invited to the summit.
Ndinisa told journalists that the summit would, among other things, explore why private fund investors appeared hesitant to support local infrastructural projects.
