Government to list qualifying SOEs on Ghana Stock Exchange - Minister

Minister for Public Enterprises, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, says the government plans to list qualifying State-owned Enterprises on the Ghana Stock Exchange next year.

The Member of Parliament for Effia Constituency said that the listing would lead to greater participation of private investment in the selected entities and improve the country’s capital market.

“…we are working to provide an opportunity for Ghanaians to participate in owning parts of selected state-owned enterprises that are doing well,” he disclosed.

Mr Joseph Cudjoe said this at a press soiree to recount the performance of the Ministry of Public Enterprises.

He said that listing the State-Owned Enterprises on the Ghana Stock Exchange would open the companies to greater transparency and the tenets of good corporate governance.

“To be able to keep track of all that is happening, we developed in 2021, a strategic plan that is reviewed annually to ensure that we are on course in keeping with our vision to be the driving force that makes specified entities work efficiently, effectively and profitably,” he said.

He said the Ministry of Public Enterprises would collaborate with the Ministry of Finance and SIGA with the approval of Cabinet to dispose of SOEs in the 1960s and 70s which had collapsed or become defunct over time.

He noted that the assets of these entities were still on the books of Ghana, deteriorating daily while the nation had no use for them.

He emphasised that the verification of these 17 assets had been undertaken and it was time to dispose of them to stop the unproductive costs the country incurred to keep the defunct assets.

He, however, said that it was the vision of the Ministry of Public Enterprises to embark on a special programme that would improve the business development capacities of the State Enterprises in the light of AfCFTA to achieve revenue growth.

The Ministry would, therefore, organise a business development forum to share ideas and strategies to expand the capacities of the State Enterprises to grow.

“We expect that all non-profitable SEs would develop and implement strategic and turnaround plans that would provide outcomes and impacts that can be evaluated over time”.

“The framework for oversight is expected to be significantly improved through strengthening SIGA’s oversight of the State Enterprises Agencies”, he said.

As part of the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Enterprises, more than 30 state entities were visited and the Boards and managements of these entities were engaged in the need to achieve outcomes that met the expectations of the government.

Mr Joseph Cudjoe also said that the concept of the Public Enterprises League Table (PELT) was conceived to generate competition among the State Enterprises and also served as the gold standard for highlighting the performance of specified entities based on the contracts signed with SIGA.

He said that the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make state enterprises profitable and be able to pay dividends to the government for national development was on course due to various proactive policies.

The policies include a State Ownership Policy, a Draft Code of Corporate Governance for all SEs, training for Board Secretaries of the SEs, organisation of meetings for CEOs of SEs in conjunction with SIGA and Ministry of Finance, capacity building for

Boards of Specified Entities and meetings with the Parliamentary Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises.

“Let us be clear however that there is more work to be done and we are leaving no stone unturned to achieve this outcome,” he assured.