How to read a Ghanaian fund factsheet

Before you put money into a Ghanaian fund you will usually be handed a factsheet: one or two pages, a chart, some percentages. Most people glance at the return and sign.

The return is the least reliable thing on it. Here is what the rest means, in the order it usually appears — and, because we have read 106 of these, what is normally missing.

The name tells you less than you think

A fund called "income", "balanced" or "money market" is describing an intention, not a holding. Two funds with the same word in their name can hold very different things: one almost entirely Treasury bills, another bank deposits and commercial paper.

What to look for. A holdings breakdown, or at minimum an asset allocation by type. If the factsheet does not say what the fund holds, the name is all you have — and it is not enough to compare two funds on.

Most Ghanaian factsheets we have read do not publish holdings.

The return, and why the window matters more than the figure

You will see something like "31.68%". Two questions before that number means anything.

Over what period? A return with no window is not a return. Look for "1 year to June 2026" or similar. A twelve-month figure and a six-month figure cannot be compared, and a six-month figure doubled to look annual is not a year's return.

In what rate environment? This matters enormously in Ghana right now. The 91-day Treasury bill paid over 20% in early 2025 and 5.08% in August 2026. A fund that returned 33% earned it in conditions that have changed completely. The figure is true; it is not a forecast, and nothing about it repeats automatically.

And is it net or gross? Some factsheets show the return after charges, some before. If it does not say, ask — the difference is roughly the annual charge, every year.

Two numbers that look the same and are not

This is the part most worth understanding.

The management charge is what the manager takes for running the fund.

The total expense ratio is that plus everything else — custody, audit, trustee fees, administration.

The TER is normally the larger number — which is exactly why the period each one covers matters more than the difference between them.

A worked example. Stanbic Investment Management Services publish stated charges of 2.25% a year on Stanbic Cash Trust, and their factsheets carry two expense ratios: 1.86% for the full year 2025, and 1.66% year-to-date as at July 2026.

Those three numbers cover three different things, and comparing any two of them without noticing is easy. Stanbic told us the year-to-date figure will most likely exceed 2.25% once annualised, and that their factsheet labels each one — the TER with the month it runs to, the fees marked per annum. We had read past the labels.

Why the 2025 full-year ratio came in below the stated charges is a separate question, and one we have put back to them.

So the lesson is not that a low TER is suspicious. It is that a percentage means nothing until you know what period it covers, and the figures on a factsheet are frequently over different ones.

What to do. Ask for the TER, ask what period it covers, and ask whether it is annualised. All three, because the second and third are where the confusion lives.

The minimum, and the second minimum

The initial minimum is usually stated. The top-up minimum often is not, and they are frequently different — a fund that opens at GH₵20 may want GH₵100 each time after.

If you are planning to add monthly, the second figure matters more than the first.

Dealing frequency, which is not the same as access

"Daily dealing" means the manager will process a redemption on any working day. It does not mean the money arrives that day, and it says nothing about how quickly the fund can sell what it holds if many people ask at once.

Look for the settlement period — how long between instructing a withdrawal and receiving the money. Some factsheets say. Most do not.

What is almost never on a Ghanaian factsheet

Having read 106 of them, the consistent gaps:

• Holdings. What the fund actually owns.
• The exit charge, if there is one.
• The settlement period for withdrawals.
• A benchmark, so you can tell whether the return was skill or the market.
• What a non-resident needs to open an account, which matters to anyone

investing from abroad.

None of these are secret. They are simply not published, and a manager will usually tell you if you ask directly.

Four questions worth asking before you commit

1. What is the total expense ratio, and what period does it cover?
2. What does the fund hold? By type at least — bills, deposits, corporate

paper, shares.

1. What is the minimum to top up, not just to open?
2. How long from asking for my money to receiving it?

A manager who answers all four clearly is telling you something about how they operate. So is one who does not.

Why this matters for what we publish

Most of the Ghanaian funds we have catalogued publish too little to compare — no charge, no minimum, no dealing terms, or a return with no window attached.

That is not a criticism of any one manager. It is a description of a market where the document you are handed before investing often does not contain the information you would need to decide.

If you are looking at a fund we do not cover, the questions above are what we would ask. And if the manager will not answer them before you invest, that is itself worth knowing.

See the funds we can show in full · Work out what a charge actually costs you