Ghanaians need to be disciplined and consistent with investment to be able to realise the full benefits of savings and other activities meant to generate future income, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Axis Pension Trust, Robert Bennin, has said.

Mr Bennin said for one to reap from their investment, he or she needed to be patient and long-term minded, noting that genuine investment would take time to bear fruits.

The financial coach gave the advice at the fifth edition of the Axis Pension Annual Open Forum in Accra.

The yearly event is to foster accountability and member engagement for the company’s schemes.

This year’s event was held on August 17 and brought together trustees, scheme members and custodians in the Axis Pension ecosystem.

It is an initiative of Axis Pension Trust, a leading name in pension and retirement savings solutions in Ghana, in furtherance of its commitment to promoting transparency, accountability and active member participation.

While advising Ghanaians to invest, the chair of the Board of Trustees also reminded the public that investment came with risks.

He emphasised the exposure of investments to certain risks such as market, credit and interest rate risk that could cause both upward and downward movements of clients’ balances in the short term.

Mr Bennin, however, said overall, at Axis Pension, it was expected that the up periods would outnumber the down periods and ultimately deliver growth to the investor.

“Legitimate and genuine investment programmes are characterised with bouts of up and down movements.

“In investing, there will be periods of pain and many moments of glory. It is the disciplined investor with long-term perspective who will live to see the glory days,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Axis Pension Trust, Afriyie Oware, said the private pensions industry had overgrown the public pensions managed by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

“The private pensions industry today manages over GH¢40 billion in assets, approximately three times the size of the net assets of the SSNIT,” he said.

Axis Pension Trust, one of the largest private pension administrators and the market leader in personal pension service provision, has consistently utilised the annual open forum to foster accountability and member engagement.

The importance of client engagements of this nature is underscored by the increasing relevance of private pension schemes to the retirement prospects of the Ghanaian worker.

In this year’s edition of the Open Forum, sessions were held for the sponsored master trust and personal pension schemes of Axis Pension Trust, namely Cedar Pension Scheme, Cedar Provident Fund and Axis Pension Plan.

The carefully curated sessions delved into a range of pertinent topics, including audited accounts, scheme performance and related matters specific to each scheme.

These discussions provided attendees with comprehensive insights into the financial health and operational efficiency of their respective pension plans.

Moreover, the sessions empowered participants with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions regarding their pension investments.

The company also used the opportunity to showcase its digital channels to the stakeholders.

Key to the excellent service delivery at Axis was the aggressive digitisation campaign the business embarked on consistently over the better part of the last decade.

In his presentation, which focused on a number of the business’ innovations, the General Manager of Axis Pension Trust, Paa Kofi Ankomah, outlined the various digital channels launched to allow clients to conveniently and securely transact with Axis.

He said despite having branches across the country, digital channels had been provided to ensure that members had round-the-clock access to their pension accounts regardless of location or type of phone; smartphone or feature phone.