A new policy analysis from the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has renewed pressure on the government to accelerate state enterprise reforms, warning that persistent governance failures within Ghana’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to generate serious fiscal risks that successive administrations have failed to resolve.
The commentary, published this month, draws on findings from the 2024 State Ownership Report (SOR), the ninth in an annual series assessing the performance of government-owned entities, and characterises the sector’s challenges as “recurring nightmares.” It describes weak corporate governance, limited operational efficiency and recurring financial deficits as structural problems that have remained largely unresolved despite years of reform programmes.
The critique carries particular weight given the financial data underpinning it. The SOE sector deepened its net loss to GH¢9.67 billion in 2024, compared with GH¢7.14 billion the year before, even as total revenues surged 28.3 per cent to GH¢133.68 billion. Finance costs of GH¢9.40 billion, roughly six times the sector’s operating profit, effectively erased all operational gains, meaning that for every GH¢1 earned before interest, an additional GH¢4.97 was required to service debt.
The CDD-Ghana analysis points to the importance of strengthening corporate governance standards, improving board accountability, and ensuring that state enterprises operate under clearer commercial mandates backed by stronger financial reporting systems.
The concerns are not new, but the commentary highlights the gap between reform intention and reform outcome. Previous assessments have documented that neither the public record nor the documented performance of these entities suggests a fundamental change over the last seven years, even as international financing has been procured specifically to improve SOE governance.
Five SOEs, including Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited, Ghana Water Company Limited and Tema Oil Refinery, consistently recorded losses across the five-year period from 2020 to 2024, posing what SIGA described as significant fiscal risks to the government. Against that, nine state enterprises, including the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Bui Power Authority (BPA) and Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), maintained uninterrupted profitability over the same period.
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson described the 2024 performance as dismal and called for tougher enforcement of reporting deadlines and prioritisation of dividend payments as a measure of financial health, acknowledging that the situation undermines the government’s broader fiscal reset agenda.
The CDD-Ghana commentary underscores that improving transparency and operational discipline within SOEs is essential to reducing the fiscal burden they place on the national budget and enhancing their contribution to economic development. The analysis arrives as the Mahama administration reviews the role of state enterprises in Ghana’s broader economic strategy, with policymakers under renewed pressure to translate reform commitments into measurable results.
