The State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) has recommended 11 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

This follows a review of 36 companies, out of which the 11 were shortlisted as the first cohort to list and raise capital from the GSE.

SIGA set up a technical and steering committee in February last year, with representatives from the GSE, SIGA, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), to review the performance of the state entities and subsequent recommendation for listing.

Those shortlisted for listing include the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited, the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation, the Ghana National Gas Company Ltd, the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, the Ghana Reinsurance Co. Ltd and SIC Life.

The rest are the PSC Tema Shipyard, the State Housing Company Ltd, the TDC Company Limited, GHACEM and GIHOC Distilleries Ltd.

The Director-General of SIGA, Mr. Edward Boateng, stated that Cabinet approval is needed before the companies can be listed.

“The committee’s mandate was to identify, recommend and oversee the capital raising and listing of SIGA’s portfolio companies on the GSE.”
Mr. Edward Boateng

Mr. Boateng spoke on SIGA’s strategies to turn around the fortunes of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) which, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), has been making losses since 2015.

Strict compliance

Mr. Boateng revealed that several strategies are being deployed to make state entities profitable and capable of contributing significantly to the development of the country.

“Immediately, we will continue with ensuring strict compliance with key sections of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2016 (Act 921) and PFM Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378) on financial reporting and accountability.”
Mr. Edward Boateng

Mr. Boateng explained that strict compliance would ensure that SIGA would have up-to-date financial information on the companies for prompt decision making.

“This way, we will bring to past the issues of entities having so many years of arrears in auditing their financials.”
Mr. Edward Boateng

The Director-General of SIGA averred that under his leadership, the authority would strengthen the performance contracting systems to ensure that targets were tailored towards sustainable operations and performance of the entities.

New Target

This year, Mr Boateng noted that SIGA has been given the target of ensuring that SOEs contribute at least 30 per cent to total productivity, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), and the authority is putting in place key interventions to help achieve the target.

“This we will do by signing performance contracts, monitoring and evaluating the performance and linking performance to the remuneration of management and boards.

“There will also be recommendations for sanctioning non-performing boards and management.”
Mr. Edward Boateng

Mr. Boateng explained that in addition to policy incoherence, there are other challenges at SIGA that need to be addressed. Some of these he said include: strengthening the capacity of SIGA in terms of personnel, logistics, among others, to deliver effectively on its mandate.

Mr Boateng added that there is the need for streamlining SIGA’s relationships with key institutions, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, among others, to clarify roles, avoid duplication, build synergies and foster stronger collaboration to ensure effective and profitable operations of the SOEs, where applicable.