The Brief

The Brief: How a Ugandan pension fund is creating its own new savers

ImpactAlpha · May 29, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

Turning Africa’s pension funds toward growth funds for small business
Replication promising models to finance nature
Boosting crop yields in India
Financial resilience for the new old age

Featured: Pathways to Growth

Ugandan pension fund is creating new savers with investments in small business and agriculture (video). Patrick Ayota serves 2.2 million members as head of the National Social Security Fund, a $6.5 billion provident fund in Uganda. He wants to have 15 million members a decade from now. To “create” them, he is reshaping the pension fund’s investment policies and asset allocations in order to back local growth funds for small businesses, which generate the bulk of the new jobs in Uganda, as in many other countries. He is also helping broker export deals to raise incomes for Uganda’s farmers. “Now they’re making a little more money, and they’ll save a bit of that money with the fund,” Ayota told ImpactAlpha in a video interview, part of ImpactAlpha’s series, Pathways to Growth, produced in partnership with the Collaborative for Frontier Finance. The NSSF’s allocations to local fund managers makes it a leader of a promising trend among Africa’s pension funds: investing locally, in local currency, to grow local economies by growing small businesses. “We said, as a fund, we cannot be passive or bystanders in the economy,” Ayota says.

Virtuous circle. More money is being withdrawn from the pension fund than is being deposited, largely because of low employment rates. “If we don’t do this, we are dead by 2045,” Ayota says. The NSSF’s Hi-Innovator program, launched in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation in 2020, has invested in more than 400 startups over the last four years, generating 14,000 new members for the pension fund. Together, they’ve saved around $430,000, exceeding the program’s goals. The five-year program, seeded with $5 million from each entity, will be extended to 2030 with a substantial ramp up in investment from both NSSF and the Toronto-based foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropies. The new goal: reach 1,000 startups. “By creating more jobs and more resilient businesses, he’s able to get people to a place where they can put money aside for their pensions,” says CFF’s Drew von Glahn. “And secondly, they’re reinvesting back into their own economy. It creates a virtuous circle of positive benefits.”
Farmer incomes. Ayota knows he cannot reach his goal of 15 million members just by funding startups. Nearly 70% of Uganda’s population earn a living through agriculture. NSSF has committed another $8 million to a $40 million holding company to connect farmers to markets, stabilizing and increasing farmers’ incomes (see, “Proof points from Uganda for unlocking capital for women and refugees”). The initiative will also bring in commercial banks. “It derisks the entire value chain,” Ayota says. “The entire sector is working to help that farmer produce the crop that the market requires.” NSSF is hosting a forum in Kampala this November to encourage other pension funds to take on the challenge of spurring local economies and being active investors. His message to other African pension funds: “You can do something in your local economy. It doesn’t require a lot of outlay. You become the catalyst that other investors can look to, because you are a local entity with credibility.”
Keep reading, “Uganda’s pension fund is creating new savers with investments in small business and agriculture,” by Lucy Ngige and David Bank. And watch Ayota’s video interview, part of the series Pathways to Growth, produced in partnership with the Collaborative for Frontier Finance.

Dealflow: Nature-Based Solutions

Revenues for Nature backs seven financing models for restoration and conservation. London-based Green Finance Institute and the United Nations seek to mobilize $200 million in private capital for natural ecosystems by adapting or replicating promising nature-based financing models. Revenues for Nature’s first cohort includes Finance Earth’s loan fund for small fisheries; 3Keel’s network model for restoring degraded land in Europe; and an effort to replicate the Environmental Policy Innovation Center’s approach to wetlands habitat “offset” financing in Central America. Revenues for Nature, or R4N, will cover the costs of landscape and policy analysis, pilot development, financial structuring and assist with other capacity support needs to bring the models to Europe, Asia and Latin America. “By championing these pioneering models and approaches – scaling their impact, replicating their success, and sharing lessons learned where relevant – we will be able to accelerate progress toward closing the nature finance gap,” said Helen Avery of the Green Finance Institute.

Financing fish. UK-based Finance Earth partnered with the World Wildlife Fund in 2023 to launch the Fisheries Improvement Fund to help small fisheries transition to more sustainable practices that nurture and restore marine ecosystems. The model, piloted last year in Chile, provided capital upfront for improvements; the loans were repaid, with interest, through off-take agreements negotiated with the fisheries’ buyers. Finance Earth will use funding from R4N to expand the model to the Maldives.
Supply chains. Singapore-based Lestari Capital in 2022 launched an innovative financing mechanism to get large consumer goods companies, like Unilever and Nestle, to invest in sustainable palm oil production. The model, called the Rimba Collective, gets corporates to pay into a pool to cover the cost of conservation projects in palm-producing communities (for background see, “Financing forest restoration by enforcing supply-chain standards“). Those projects receive the funding on a performance basis for specified outcomes. The corporates’ contributions to the projects are certified, allowing them to make verified claims about their sustainability work. Lestari tested the model in the palm oil sector in Indonesia, and is now looking to adapt it for the fashion and textiles industry.
Impact in Latam. An initiative of the UN Environment Programme’s Financing Initiative – a launch partner on R4N – with Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura will provide receivables-based financing to farmers in the Amazon to shift to sustainable practices. The UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative – another R4N launch partner – is expanding an ecosystem services payment approach with local partners in Colombia and Sri Lanka.
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GROWiT lands $3 million to help Indian farmers cut input costs. India’s GVFL led a $3 million Series A funding round for GROWiT India, the agricultural subsidiary of family-owned packaging company Alpha Plastomers Private Limited. GROWiT makes mulch film, shade nets, crop covers, sticky traps, pond liners and other products to boost soil moisture retention, suppress weed growth and protect crops from pests. It also offers a soil testing device. By reducing the use of water and pesticides and shielding crops from unfavorable weather, GROWiT says it helps farmers improve their yields by 40% to 60%.

Sustainable farming. Other investors in the round include Veloce Opportunities Fund, Sunicon Ventures Fund, We Founder Circle and Hyderabad Angels. GROWiT is “making climate-friendly, sustainable farming methods more affordable and effective,” said Mihir Joshi of GVFL. The funding will support the company’s research and development and expansion in India and to Africa. The startup provides training services to over 225,000 farmers in 12 states.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

All On is investing $1.3 million to expand the production capability of Salpha Energy, a women-led solar home system manufacturer that focuses on products for Nigeria’s off-grid communities. (Renewables Now)
Candide Group’s Afterglow Climate Justice Fund provided a loan to Brooklyn-based Dollaride to help the commuter service expand its electric van fleet (see, “Electrifying ‘dollar vans’ to boost livelihoods and cut carbon in New York’s transit deserts”). (Candide Group)

Canada’s Li-Cycle is the latest battery maker to file for bankruptcy this year, following Sweden’s Northvolt and New York’s iM3NY. (Climate Tech Canada)
Brazil’s Blips raised 50 million reais ($8.7 million) to finance, rent and sell business equipment to micro and small business owners working in essential sectors like food and construction. (Startupi)

Impact Voices: Valuing Aging

Financial resilience for the new old age. Talk about a mega-trend. The number of Americans aged 65 and older is expected to hit 95 million by 2060; many of them are unprepared for retirement. With a $3.7 trillion retirement savings shortfall, tens of millions of older adults could be living in or near poverty. “Insufficient income and retirement savings paired with large, unpredictable expenses makes it difficult for many older Americans to accurately plan for the future,” ResilienceVC’s Vikas Raj and Billy Taki and Impact Engine’s Rahul Bhide and Olivia Grinker write in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “As investors, we are looking for solutions that can help alleviate these burdens amidst this growing crisis.” A new crop of startups are stepping up with products that help older adults manage income, reduce healthcare-related costs, and tap home equity when needed.

Startup ecosystem. Resilience VC and Impact Engine are looking to back startups that combine measurable impact with scalable models – particularly those using a B2B2C structure. They’re targeting investments in companies that offer innovative retirement products and accounts, retirement planning and protection, and medical expense planning. Pension Plus mimics the regular payouts of pensions. Retirable and Charlie help people manage retirement accounts. Splitero and Hometap unlock home value as an additional safety net. And CoverRight and Chapter help streamline Medicare decision-making. Say the authors, “Early stage innovators are making impressive strides in supporting retirement planning and the needs of older adults.”
Keep reading, “Financial resilience for the new old age” by Vikas Raj, Rahul Bhide, Billy Taki and Olivia Grinker. Next50 Foundation supports ImpactAlpha’s Valuing Aging coverage.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Social Finance appoints Pamela Yang, formerly chief operating officer at Bulfinch, as chief financial officer… ImpactA Global welcomes Isabella Craft, previously with INOKS Capital, as an ESG and impact manager… Village Capital brings on Oscar Robles of ePesos as a board member… ImpactAssets Capital Partners is looking for a senior associate of portfolio management and monitoring… Realize Impact is hiring a part-time senior accountant.

NextEra Energy is recruiting an investment principal in Washington, DC… Also in DC, Quona Capital is looking for an executive office associate… The Environmental Defense Fund seeks a senior analyst… The World Economic Forum is seeking a responsible investing lead for women’s health, based in New York… US Bank has an opening for an environmental finance asset manager… The Center for Disaster Philanthropy is on the hunt for a program manager to focus on international funds… Impact Ventures is hiring a lending managing director in Dallas… Arnold Ventures seeks an evidence and evaluation manager in Houston.

Heading for Change is hosting a webinar for the launch of its climate and gender-lens investment toolkit today at 11am ET. It will host another session Wednesday, June 4… mHUB is accepting applications for its 2025 Sustainable Water Tech Accelerator, a six-month program for early-stage water startups… Mission Investors Exchange is kicking off its ownership-lens investing series with Smitha Das of World Education Services and Santhosh Ramdoss of Gary Community Ventures, Wednesday, June 11… This year’s Sun Valley Forum, focused on nature-based solutions, will take place June 23-26 in Ketchum, Idaho.