Banking and Corporate Governance Consultant, Dr Richmond Atuahene, has cautioned that Ghana’s improving State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) finances could come under severe pressure if the cedi begins to depreciate again.

His warning follows a sharp turnaround in the financial performance of SOEs in 2025.

According to the State Interests and Governance Authority’s (SIGA) 2025 State Ownership Report, SOEs recorded a consolidated net profit after tax of GH¢19.80 billion, reversing a GH¢2.25 billion loss in 2024. Revenue also rose from GH¢137.64 billion to GH¢176.43 billion.  

However, Dr Atuahene says the figures should be examined more closely before being interpreted as evidence of significant operational efficiency.

“As Professor Isaac Boadi of UPSA said, I look at it, and he called it a miracle. But if you dive deep into it, it’s not operational efficiency. It’s completely, it’s not operational efficiency.”

He said a major factor behind the improved results was foreign exchange gains.

“If you are moved by foreign exchange gains by 60%, then you are not talking about efficiency. So, for me, it’s not so much the profit, but are we talking about operational efficiency?”

Dr Atuahene warned that the gains could quickly be reversed if the cedi loses its current stability.

“Because other than that, when the reality comes, you’re going to have a hit. When I mean the reality, should the cedi begin to go downwards, then you’ll begin to see that we have a big problem.”

The SIGA report indicates that the performance of the cedi helped reduce SOEs’ finance costs by 42.49 per cent.

The entities also recorded net foreign exchange earnings of GH¢11.72 billion in 2025, compared with a foreign exchange loss of GH¢12.01 billion in 2024.  

Dr Atuahene also raised concerns about the scale of debt accumulated by state enterprises.

“And also, the magnitude of the debt, 282 billion. If you run an economy with such a debt overhang, I don’t know what you can do.”

He noted that SOE liabilities accounted for about GH¢282 billion of the wider debt burden.

“Debt overhang of over ¢700 billion; ¢ 282 billion is by the state enterprises. That is where we should have a little bit of concern and worry.”

The SIGA report puts total SOE liabilities at GH¢281.99 billion, with ECG alone accounting for GH¢82.31 billion.  

Dr Atuahene said the government must therefore treat SOE reforms as a priority, particularly under the IMF programme.

“That is the reason why, in the IMF’s PCI, one of the ten fundamental reforms that we are being required to do is to look at these SOEs, which is very, very important.”

He warned that the underlying problems in state enterprises could eventually pose a wider threat to the economy.

“If we go the way we are going with SOEs, one day we will get up, and the country will come to a grinding halt.”

He questioned whether profitability should be measured solely by financial statements, given that some enterprises continue to struggle to deliver basic public services.

“Produce the figures, talk about profit, but the reality, like Professor said, what is the output? You’re not getting your light on. You’re not getting your water.”

“Are we measuring it by what measure? What metrics are we using?”