Ghana has spent years talking about the need to increase financing for startups and SMEs. The funding gap is well documented. What is less visible is institutional capital actually moving into vehicles designed to finance the next generation of businesses.

Ashesi University offers a useful counterexample.

Over the last two year’s the university’s endowment has committed capital to Janngo Capital and Ventures Platform, two of Africa’s most prolific venture capital managers. The investments are significant beyond their size. Ashesi is putting institutional capital into funds whose job is to find and finance businesses across Africa.

This is a different approach to supporting entrepreneurship. Rather than creating another programme for founders, Ashesi is putting capital behind the investors financing them.

For Ghana’s startup ecosystem, the question is bigger than Ashesi. Where is the institutional capital that will finance the businesses Ghana expects to become its next generation of employers, exporters and technology companies?

The financing problem is not a lack of ideas

Ghana has built a relatively mature entrepreneurship support ecosystem. There are incubators, accelerators, university programmes, government initiatives, grants and competitions.

The harder problem comes after the programme. A founder who has developed a product, found early customers and needs $50,000 or $500,000 to scale faces a much thinner pool of capital.

This is where venture capital funds matter. One institutional limited partner commitment does not finance one startup. It gives a fund manager capital to build a portfolio of businesses. That distinction matters in a market where the supply of capital remains limited.

Ashesi’s approach therefore offers a useful model. An institution with a pool of long term capital is allocating part of that capital to professional fund managers, who then take the investment decisions and deploy capital into businesses. It is a relatively simple idea. More institutions need to do it.

Bangladesh is moving in the same direction

Ghana is also facing a regional and global race for startup capital.

Bangladesh offers an interesting comparison.

Commercial banks recently pooled capital into a vehicle designed to invest in venture funds. Bangladesh Startup Investment Company launched with backing from 39 commercial banks and an initial fund of roughly $35 million. Banks are putting balance sheet capital behind an asset class they have traditionally approached with caution.

This is what a functioning startup financing ecosystem needs. Banks, pension funds, universities, development institutions, family offices and other pools of institutional capital need pathways into venture capital.

Ghana has some of these institutions. The bigger question is whether enough of them are willing to allocate capital.

Ghana keeps announcing financing vehicles, yet not execution.

The contrast with Ghana is uncomfortable. In 2024, the Venture Capital Trust Fund announced plans for a Youth Fund and sought a fund manager to establish and operate the vehicle. The proposed fund was intended to finance youth-led SMEs and entrepreneurs. More than two years later, our sources indicate the fund has still not reached the market because a fit-for-purpose fund manager has not been identified.

If accurate, the problem is revealing. The country does not lack recognition of the financing gap. It has struggled to turn that recognition into a functioning investment vehicle. This is where the difference between announcements and capital deployment becomes important.

A fund is useful when capital reaches a fund manager. A fund manager is useful when capital reaches companies. And a financing programme matters when founders are able to use the capital to build businesses.

Everything before that is preparation.

Ashesi’s move raises an uncomfortable question

Ashesi is a relatively young university. Yet its endowment is beginning to behave like institutional capital. It is allocating capital to professional investors who have the mandate to finance African companies.

That raises an uncomfortable question for Ghana’s broader investment ecosystem.

If a young university is willing to allocate endowment capital to African venture funds, why are more Ghanaian institutions not doing the same?

The answer will differ across institutions. Universities have different financial structures. Pension funds have different mandates. Banks face different regulatory requirements. Government backed funds have different objectives. But the underlying issue is the same. Ghana needs more pools of capital capable of taking a long term view of startup investing.

The real test is what happens next. Ashesi’s investments will not solve Ghana’s startup financing problem. Nor should one university investment be treated as proof that the ecosystem has turned a corner.

The significance is the signal. Institutional capital does not have to wait for a perfect market before participating. It can help build the market by backing fund managers with the expertise and networks to identify opportunities.

Ghana needs more of this. The country has spent considerable time discussing startup financing, youth entrepreneurship and the need for patient capital. The next stage requires institutions to put money behind those priorities.

Ashesi has started doing so. The question for Ghana is who follows.