GHANA: Assessment of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund ( GIIF) enterprise risk management framework

In 2015, PPIAF supported the creation of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), which included options for organizational structure, business strategy, and operating policies related to the functioning and running of the GIIF. This support provided critical assistance to GIIF in their early years and helped them lay a sound foundation from which they are growing. The Fund's primary objective is to catalyze the development of critical infrastructure in Ghana. Five years later, GIIF had commitments into 12 transactions amounting to a contribution of $275 million in projects with a total value of $2.78 billion, leveraged significantly from the private sector. In addition, GIIF developed a pipeline of 13 projects with an estimated additional investment requirement of $750 million across infrastructure sectors, including the Accra-Tema Motorway project, the Transvolta Logistics project, and various renewable energy projects. This will require not only new sources of capital for GIIF, but also a clear strategic orientation for the next 5-years and a strong culture of risk management, supported by policies and information systems. Within this context, the government requested PPIAF support to help reinforce GIF's operationalization and help Ghana access the infrastructure marketplace.

In response to this request, PPIAF approved a grant to support GIIF institute a strong risk management culture by adapting global best practices on enterprise risk management for infrastructure investment funds in 2020. The activity aims to strengthen GIIF's risk management policies and practices by appraising its existing Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework and offering recommendations for enhancing GIIF's ERM practices. This technical assistance consists of recommendations for the GIIF to prepare for a new phase of growth of its operations by strengthening its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) systems. It includes articulating the GIIF's strategic outlook for its support of private infrastructure investment in Ghana and, in that context, recommending improvements to its ERM systems, drawing on international experience from four peer institutions. A detailed ERM system strengthening action plan has been developed in response to ERM systemic risks at GIIF, which included weaknesses in its MIS systems, and these were clustered under quick-win actions and longer-term actions. The support was completed by a comprehensive capacity building program delivered to GIIF staff. 

Based on the assessment and benchmarking exercise, recommendations have been proposed including (i) strengthening risk governance and resourcing such as the risk management function, operationalizing the internal audit function, constituting "asset liability committee, (ii) developing strategy and enhancing risk policies and (iii) enhancing risk process with MIS support such as enhancement of IT security and risk monitoring and control. 

The GIIF's board agreed with the proposed recommendation and also committed to work toward strengthening its risk governance and associated tasks.