The establishments included joint venture companies (JVCs) and minority interest entities.

It represents an increase of 164.9 per cent or GH¢175.51 million over the GH¢103.97 million recorded in the 2019 financial year.

According to a State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) report, in all, there are 63 SOEs in the country.

The Head of Division Performance Monitoring and Evaluation at SIGA, Olivia Opoku-Adomah, made the report available to the media shortly after a press briefing by the authority in Accra yesterday.

Establishments that paid their respective dividends and also signed performance contracts with SIGA in 2020 were the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), the Ghana Reinsurance Limited and the Tema Development Company Limited (TDC).

The JVCs were the GCB Bank, the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNET), the Ghana Women's Fund Company Limited and GOIL Ghana Limited.

The minority interest entities were the African Reinsurance Corporation, AngloGold Ashanti, Benso Oil Palm Plantation and Kinross Chirano Mining, formerly Chirano Gold Mines.

The rest were Goldfields Ghana in Tarkwa in the Western Region, Abosso Gold Fields, Ghana Cement Factory Company (GHACEM), Newmont Ghana Gold, Newmont Mining Company, Savannah Cement Company and Standard Chartered Bank.

Rationale

The report attributed the dividend receipts for the 2020 financial year mainly to “a marked increased contribution from the minority interest portfolio, particularly the mining sector, which paid GH¢224 .77 million as dividend to the government, compared to GH¢38.48 million in the 2019 financial year”.

Apart from the mining sector, the report said, GHACEM increased its contribution from GH¢7.30 million in 2019 to GH¢27.66 million in 2020.

It, however, said SOEs and JVCs recorded a 37.5 and 73.18 per cent decline in dividend payments, respectively.

Concerns

The Director-General of SIGA, Mr Edward Boateng, said it was regrettable that SOEs and other state entities could only contribute five per cent to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), instead of the mandated 30 per cent or $30 billion they were expected to contribute, in line with the target given them by the Ministry of Finance.

He advised SOEs to put in their best to enable the government to realise adequate resources to fund development projects.