President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has admonished heads of public enterprises to include Ghanaian entrepreneurs in their supply chain activities.
According to the President, this will help to help create employment for more Ghanaian youth end also reduce the growing rate of unemployment in the country.
Speaking during the 2022 Policy and Governance Forum, under the theme, “Improving Performance of Specified Entities,” President Nana Addo said many lives will be impacted if this is done continuously.
“Beginning this year, I urged every specified entity to direct his supply chain activities to involve Ghanaian entrepreneurs to spare the growth of the micro, small and medium scale enterprising sector in order for more and more young people to be employed. If we can do this continuously for say five years imagine the number of lives that will be impacted. When we gather again in the coming years God willing I will be eager to listen to the success stories in this area. The task for all you gathered here is to you to operate profitably and deficiently and in by so doing expand your scope of operation so that you can employ more people.”
President Nana Addo explaining his vision behind the creation of the public enterprising ministry to have oversight on State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), said is to ensure that productivity and profitability are improved.
“My decision to appoint Minister for public enterprising for the first time in our nation’s history to be responsible for SIGA is a re-affirmation of my commitment to ensuring that the public enterprising sector is restructured to improve productivity and profitability, I’m confident that the measures are put in place in the monitoring of specified entities will lead to the transformation we all desire. Fundamentals to this transformation however are the use of the appropriate technology. The advanced economies of the world are successful largely because of their reliance on technology and we can do the same. Huge investment and proper IT infrastructure are needed going forward, both will help accelerate our development and also compete on the global stage. Most of you are aware since I assumed office five years ago one of the obvious successes chalked by the government has been the execution of the impressive agenda to digitize all aspects of our national lives. My expectations and indeed that of every Ghanaian is to see SIGA works in tandem with the respective specified entities and their boards to assist in moving our country to a situation beyond aid.”
The president also charged the management and board members of SIGA to serve as watchdogs to the specified entities under their jurisdiction to ensure they live up to the task. “The board members and management I urge you, be the watchdogs in ensuring the institution under your jurisdiction lives up to their mandate. There should be no reasons why SIGA which has his collaborative institutions embedded in almost all the critical sectors of the economy such as energy, mining, agriculture, financial and ICT agencies should be found wanting in the discharge of his mandate.”
On his part, Director-General of SIGA, Ambassador Edward Boateng says the Authority will ensure State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) operate under the right business principles and ultimately achieve national growth and development by creating an enabling environment for the private sector.
Mr. Boateng having previously served as Ghana’s Ambassador to China and his vast experience from working in Europe, the United States of America (USA), and many parts of Africa said,
“Improving Performance of Specified Entities,” Ambassador Edward Boateng said, “Impacting change even through dynamics should not be a slow grinding wheel. We need to move with a new sense of purpose. Having had the previous opportunity to serve as Ghana’s Ambassador to China under the leadership of His Excellency President Akuffo Addo, I can boldly say China’s economic rise isn’t rocket science. China is what it is because of the determination of the Chinese people especially the leadership of Chairman Deng Xiaoping. He resolved to give the country a new image. The Chinese SOEs created an economic superhighway which unleashed the energy and creativity of the Chinese people that has propelled China from a backward developing country to a first-class technology savvy country within four decades.”
Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah representing his boss, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta (Finance Minister) also said,
“In preparing the 2020 State Ownership Report, our analysis revealed that our Specified Enterprises performance has largely trended downwards. Indeed SOEs consistently posted aggregate net losses from Ghc 2.1b in 2015 to the latest figure in 2020 at Ghc 5.3b losses. Compound annual growth of 16.2%.”
He further expressed his unhappiness with the concurrent losses and downgrade in standards of the various state entities.
“Of the 44 SOEs and 16 JBCs covered in the 2020 draft SOE report, 50% of SOEs and 63% of JBCs reported losses. Again of the 56 OSCs covered, 34% posted deficits. It is regrettable that while our Specified Enterprises Entities, especially SOEs hold significant assets, their performance and effectiveness need much to be desired,”
Mr. Joseph Cudjoe, the Minister of Public Enterprises said leadership and technology have played out clearly in President Nana Addo’s presidency. “At the public enterprises level, we are also called upon to combine these two factors [ leadership and technology ] in an optimized manner to deliver the result we seek in all public enterprises.”
He added that the forum is timely because “there are 183 public enterprises on register comprising 51 SOEs, 43 joint venture companies, and 89 other state entities including the regulators. The 2019 state ownership report says the 106 companies that enter the report, reported a combined loss of 1.37 billion Ghana cedis and the joint venture companies also reported 2.3 billion Ghana cedis. These two accumulative losses are for only one year, so this forum comes in handy for us to harness the tools which are needed for effective performance so that we can deliver the outcomes we seek given the years ahead of us.”
The 2022 Policy and Governance Forum was organized under the auspices of SIGA in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Public Enterprises.
The forum aimed to improve the performance of Specified Entities through leadership and technology to enhance the GDP rate of Ghana.