Government decision to delist 17 SOEs long overdue – Appiah-Lartey

Financial analyst and Financial Advisory Partner, Deloitte Africa, Yaw Appiah-Lartey has described the government’s plan to delist some 17 State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as long overdue.

Minister for Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe on Wednesday disclosed that the cabinet will soon decide on the fate of some 17 state-owned enterprises.

According to the Minister, these State-Owned Enterprises are currently liabilities to the country as the government is only incurring costs by keeping them active.

Speaking on the development on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah Thursday, the financial analyst stated that although the decision is welcome it is long overdue.

“I think this is long overdue, if you take accounts of the companies that the minister mentioned a lot of them have been underperforming, reporting losses and obviously a drain on government coffers. The idea to restructure is therefore welcoming news and therefore long overdue.

“All these companies that in the past have been listed under state interest and governance authority some of them have been reporting losses for a long time; over the last 5 years. There is nowhere in the world that a private entity operating for the past 5 years reporting losses will continue to be in existence”, he bemoaned

Mr. Yaw-Appiah added that a lot of such non-performing entities remained due to political expediency.

“It is partly because of how some of them have been politically sensitive over the years… Once the government has the political will and has the basis for restructuring these entities by liquidating some, privatizing and bringing in strategic investors and also listing some on the stock exchange, it is a good idea”, he added.