In an industry historically anchored in compliance and custodianship, Jojo Akorli, MIoD, is shifting the centre of gravity toward innovation, inclusion, and customer empowerment.

His 2025 Ghana Forty Under 40 Award in the Pensions Category is not simply a professional milestone; it is a vote of confidence in a new era of retirement planning, one that speaks the language of everyday workers, entrepreneurs, and informal earners.

Over the years, Jojo has demonstrated a rare blend of strategic governance, commercial acumen, and regulatory fidelity. Over the past fifteen years, he has built high-performing teams and operational systems of excellence, served in leadership roles, including at Old Mutual Pensions Trust, overseen seven-figure portfolios, and now drives strategy and business growth at Shield Pensions Trust.

Jojo’s core thesis is simple but transformative: retirement provision must meet people where they are, not where they are expected to be.

This belief birthed his advocacy for flexible, individual pension solutions designed for micro-contributions, irregular incomes, and early-stage earners previously excluded from long-term financial planning.

He has championed systems that turn "I can't save yet" into "I can start small today," empowering contributors to own their pension journeys outside traditional salary-linked schemes.

His leadership style pairs operational discipline with ecosystem thinking. Whether forging strategic partnerships that improve cost-to-serve, strengthening distribution channels, or embedding governance that reinforces trust, Jojo has consistently expanded coverage without compromising integrity.

His work also carries national significance. He holds a strong conviction that Ghana’s pension participation gap—especially among informal workers, women, and MSMEs—demands a policy direction that prioritises inclusion through innovation.

Jojo’s success underscores a clear policy imperative. In his words:

“National pension reform must scale fully portable micro-pension frameworks, incentivise digital onboarding, and enable public-private collaboration to drive down contribution costs, particularly for the informal sector, the youth, and the gig economy.”

His 40 Under 40 win does more than spotlight an exceptional professional; it reframes what leadership in pensions looks like. It signals that the future of retirement is not defined by age or income bracket, but by access, agency, and design.

Jojo Akorli is not just preparing people for retirement. He is redesigning who gets to participate in it, and that is transformational leadership.