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The Vice-President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has announced that the government is considering a performance-based remuneration framework for specified entities as part of efforts to strengthen accountability, improve efficiency and ensure state-owned enterprises (SOEs) deliver value to citizens.
The proposed framework will tie the salaries and incentives of managers of the entities to their performance.
The Vice-President said the system, if implemented, would be enforced by the Ministry of Finance and the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) to help reduce financial losses in public institutions.
She was speaking at this year’s annual stakeholder conference of SIGA in Accra.
The event, held on the theme: "The State as a Partner in Progress: Leveraging Public Assets for Shared Prosperity", provided a platform to review the findings of SIGA's 2024 State Ownership Report (SOR) and the Annual Governance and Institutional Performance Assessment Report (AGIPAR).
The discussions focused on enhancing governance, operational performance and reducing audit infractions across the public sector.
The Vice-President described public enterprises as critical national assets that must drive transformation and economic growth.
Vice-President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang (arrowed) with the heads of State-Owned Enterprises
“Since assuming office, our administration has been committed to repositioning specified entities as engines of value creation. Legacy issues and past operational challenges should not justify persistent underperformance. SOEs must deliver and offer an attractive value proposition to Ghanaians who are the shareholders,” Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said.
She said more than 170 specified entities operated across key sectors of the economy, managing significant assets and employing large numbers of people.
Despite generating substantial revenue, she said, some of those entities continued to record operational losses and rising liabilities, which put pressure on public finances.
She stressed that weak accountability and financial indiscipline must not define the future of state institutions and called for a shift towards performance-driven management.
She disclosed that last year, SIGA, working with the Ministry of Finance, began a comprehensive review of the state’s equity portfolio to assess the financial health and strategic relevance of public enterprises.
She said the review would guide decisions on improving underperforming entities, while profitable ones could see increased state investment or possible listing on the stock exchange.
She said the country’s reform efforts aligned with similar initiatives in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and Morocco, where improved governance had led to stronger institutional performance and economic growth.
She outlined key priorities driving the reforms, including stronger public sector governance, clear performance targets, financial discipline and strategic partnerships with the private sector.
The Vice-President reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring that public enterprises contributed meaningfully to national development.
“Our nation’s public enterprises are central to our national development story. If they succeed, and they must succeed, then Ghana succeeds,” she said.
The Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, stressed the need to treat state enterprises as public assets that must deliver value.
“SOEs are not private estates. They are public assets. It is how we manage them, optimise them and leverage them that determines their value,” he said.
He emphasised the need for improved service delivery, stating that reliability, access and efficiency must improve.
He said with macroeconomic stability being restored, attention must now shift to results.
“The era where macroeconomic instability was an excuse is over.
With stability restored, the responsibility now shifts to performance,” he said.
He added that public enterprises must become efficient stewards of national assets, partners in national development and reliable contributors to fiscal sustainability.
He urged stakeholders to ensure value for money in public investments, stating that every cedi invested in an SOE must return value to Ghanaians.
The Director-General of SIGA, Prof. Michael Kpessah-Whyte, said the agency had intensified oversight and engagement with boards and management, noting improvements in compliance, revenue growth and operational performance.
He emphasised that performance contracting should become universal and that governance lapses, conflicts of interest and weak internal controls must be addressed to maintain credibility.
He also outlined SIGA’s reform agenda, including dividend payment guidelines, a 10-year portfolio management strategy and the development of active investor relations to reposition state enterprises from fiscal burdens to financially sustainable national assets.
