This, he said, has become necessary because most of those assets, although defunct, are still on the books of Ghana, contributing nothing significantly but rather incurring unproductive costs.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, the minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Effia, explained that the time has come to let go of all those assets that have been defunct since the 1970s.
“Going forward, ladies and gentlemen, the Secretariat would be collaborating with Ministry of Finance and SIGA to undertake a very useful exercise. You will recall that Ghana had key SOEs in the 1960s and 70s which have collapsed or become defunct over time. The assets of these entities are still on the books of Ghana, deteriorating daily while we have no use for them.
“The verification of these assets has been undertaken and it is time to dispose of them to stop the unproductive costs we incur to keep these defunct assets,” he said.
Joseph Cudjoe also explained that to be able to effectively do this, it is working around getting approval from the cabinet.
“We intend to request Cabinet approval to this effect,” he added.
The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, set up the Ministry of Public Enterprises in 2021 to be able to ensure that the many state-owned enterprises in the country that are established to contribute to the economy by being profitable and paying dividends for national development begin to live up to their mandates.
It was noticed that over time, however, many of the state enterprises became a drain on the economy, regularly seeking bailouts and financial support to stay afloat.
Upon realizing this key challenge, President Akufo-Addo re-organised the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) and the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), which led to the promulgation of the SIGA Act (Act 990) to establish the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), and subsequently appointed a Minister for Public Enterprises to oversee SIGA.
AE/BOG
Joseph Cudjoe is the Minister of Public Enterprises