Mr Sam Pee Yalley, Chairman of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), on Tuesday said Ghana’s economy stood to benefit hugely from investible pension funds yet to be released into the capital markets.

He said: “The NPRA is a powerful financial gem underground which only needs to discover its full potential and capabilities”.

Mr Yalley was speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on the status of implementation of the New Pension Scheme in Accra, organized by the NPRA for the leadership of organised labour in Accra.

He said so far at the last reconciliation of the fund documents, the total value of contribution invested amounted to GH¢851,732,125.84.

He said the amount, GH¢668,342,940.00, was made up of net holdings in the Temporary Pension Fund Accounts of tier one and two schemes under the new pension scheme. He added that government stocks amounted to GH¢183,389,185.84 with total returns on investment amounting to GH¢145,507,659.43.

The NPRA Chairman said these funds had been invested mostly in Treasury Bills issued by the Bank of Ghana and Bonds issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the NPRA.

Mr Yalley said challenges facing the new scheme include - low scheme registration rate, lack of proper data on the scheme, unwanted and ill informed criticisms.

He stated that the NPRA would be opening six new regional offices, sourcing of funds from other sources, acquisition of robust information and communication technology infrastructure, among others to accelerate its growth and expansion.

He noted that pension reforms had come that far with the active support and collaboration of labour; and he assured organised labour at the forum that their grievances would be presented to government for redress.