Kenya's pension industry to hit Sh1trn mark

Funds held by the pension industry in Kenya are expected to grow by 25 per cent to Sh1 trillion over the next one year, this is according to Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) chief executive officer, Edward Odundo.

Currently, the industry has funds worth Sh800 billion and “we are seeing this figure going up to Sh1 trillion. The growth is quite high,” he said.

Such funds can be unlocked to finance infrastructure development across the country.

National Treasury cabinet secretary, Henry Rotich proposed the creation of a new category within the Retirement Benefits Investment guidelines to allow the schemes to invest up to 10 per cent of their assets in private equity funds and venture capital funds licensed by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

Kenya is currently implementing a raft of ambitious multi-billion shillings projects especially energy and transport and this have seen the government resort to external sources of finance to fast track the development of those projects.