Ministry, SIGA team up to improve SOEs

The Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, says his outfit is collaborating with the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country.

It is widely held that SOEs, characterised by underperformance, have become a drain on government’s budget, hence the need to change the narrative around them.

“They were always asking for capital when the State had invested a lot of assets in them, and instead of using them to create results, they were just running down these enterprises.

“The net effect is the lack of growth of the SOEs to create jobs and opportunities for the teeming youth,” Mr Cudjoe said during a media engagement in Accra last Wednesday.

SIGA, which has a core mandate to promote within the framework of government policy, the efficient and profitable operations of statutory corporations engaged in trade and industry, organised the maiden weekly media engagements to share the successes of entities with various stakeholders and the citizenry at large.

Mr Cudjoe said the State Register of Certified Entities had about 175 SOEs, joint venture companies and other stated entities, out of which 52 were corporate and had 55 per cent of government shares, 46 joint venture companies and 77 other State entities.

“This is a big chunk of investment by government, and you can imagine if these entities are operating profitably and efficiently what it would mean for Ghana,” he said. 

Engagement

The Director-General (DG) of SIGA, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, said the media engagements would invite CEOs and DGs weekly to re-emphasise the work they had been doing, pitch their successes and do follow up for feedback to correct what needed to be corrected.

“Technology has been part of the central element we work with such that while we engage the media, we will also open ourselves to the public through social media for feedback.

Entities

The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) and the Ghana Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas) participated in the maiden edition of the series.

The CEO of Ghana Gas, Dr Ben Asante, outlined plans to expand infrastructure to support the country’s gas production.

Those plans, he said, included the construction of another gas processing plant to increase capacity from the current 150 million metric standard cubic feet (mmscf) to about 240mmscf per day; the construction of 278-kilometre onshore pipeline from Takoradi to Tema to use onshore pipeline to transport natural gas eastwards; the construction of a Prestea-Kumasi gas pipeline to supply lean gas to Nyinahin and Kumasi for mineral processing and power generation — which is already 60 per cent complete — and the construction of a mainline compressor station at Atuabo to maximise pipeline capacity from 135mmscf to 405mmscf per day.

The rest are the construction of a 52-kilometre pipeline from Atuabo to Cote d’Ivoire to transport natural gas to the Osagyefo Barge and Domunli Enclave and Cote D’Ivoire (through “Swapping”), as well as gas supply to the fertiliser plant project located at Domunli to produce 400,000 tonnes of Urea and NPK fertiliser.

The Managing Director of BOST, Mr Edwin Provencal, said the key achievements by BOST so far included the payment of about 96 per cent ($573 million) of its legacy debt of $623 million to suppliers and related parties.

“In terms of our GCB Bank loan of GH¢58.4 million through our internally generated fund we have been able to pay all; our UBA loan, we have paid it off completely; our StanChart loan we have negotiated from GH¢137 million to GH¢100 million and we have cleared it as well.

“Our audited accounts for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 completed, 2019 audit is 90 per cent complete and 2020 audit will be completed by June 2021,” he said.