Ghana's state-run pension fund SSNIT intends to gradually ramp up trading of its holdings in local shares when Tullow Oil and other firms float on the West African nation's bourse this year, it told Reuters.

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust is by far the largest shareholder on the Ghana Stock Exchange and is accused by some as sitting on shares and snuffing out liquidity, a charge it rejects.

"We are watching for the flotation of Tullow," Eshun said in an interview of the UK-listed company operating Ghana's Jubilee oilfield, and which hopes to list shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) by the end of the second quarter.

"When there are other stocks on the market and when the fundamentals are right we will participate," he said, adding the fund should become more active by the end of the third quarter.