CLAIM:

SIC MD James Agyenim-Boateng says SIGA's December 2025 communication was an "encouragement", not a directive, to state entities on insurance placements.

VERDICT:

MISLEADING. The December 11, 2025 SIGA letter now in the public domain carries the subject heading "Directive to State-Owned Enterprises to Prioritise the Use of State-Owned Insurance Companies" and references an earlier communication described as "directing" SOEs to prioritise SIC.

The word "encouragement" does not appear in the document.

Managing Director of State Insurance Company (SIC), James Agyenim-Boateng, has pushed back against allegations of political interference in Ghana's insurance sector following a formal petition by policy think tank IMANI Africa to President John Dramani Mahama.

Speaking on Newsnite on JoyNews, Mr. Agyenim-Boateng was confronted with correspondence from the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and asked whether the letters amounted to a directive to state institutions to channel their insurance business to SIC.

He insisted they did not.

"There's a difference between an encouragement from SIGA and a directive from SIGA," he said, adding that SIGA's communication was encouraging inter-trading among state entities, a practice he said SIGA is legally mandated to promote across all sectors, not just insurance.

MYJOYONLINE decided to fact-check this claim because it goes to the heart of a growing controversy about procurement integrity and political interference in Ghana's insurance market, a controversy that has prompted formal petitions to the Presidency and public statements from senior industry figures.

Examining the Document

IMANI Africa published the SIGA correspondence as part of its analysis titled The Insurance Question: Competition or Coordination? The key document is a letter dated December 11, 2025, bearing reference number SIGA/SOE.SIC/1225, addressed to the Managing Directors of SIC Insurance PLC and SIC Life Company Limited.

Its subject line reads, in bold and underlined text: "Directive to State-Owned Enterprises to Prioritise the Use of State-Owned Insurance Companies".

The body of the letter goes further. SIGA references "its earlier communication to the Chief Executive Officers of all State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Specified Entities, directing them to prioritise the use of State-owned insurance companies, specifically SIC Insurance PLC and SIC Life Company Limited for their insurance needs."

The December 11 letter was a follow-up to that earlier communication, requesting compliance reports from SIC including lists of SOEs currently doing business with the company, premium volumes, and renewal status.

The word "encouragement" does not appear in the document. The word "compliance" does.

What SIGA's Own Letter Says

It is important to note a distinction that affects the precise characterisation of the December 11 letter. The letter is addressed to SIC — not to SOEs directly.

It is, in effect, a follow-up to SIC asking the company to report on progress. The directive to SOEs was contained in an earlier communication referenced within this letter, which has not been separately published in full.

However, the December 11 letter makes the content and intent of that earlier directive explicit.

It describes the earlier communication as one that was "directing" SOEs to prioritise SIC, and frames its own purpose as ensuring "compliance" with that direction.

That is not the language of encouragement.

Conclusion

Mr. Agyenim-Boateng's characterisation of SIGA's communication as an "encouragement" is misleading. The document SIGA itself authored describes its earlier communication to SOEs as a directive, uses that word in the subject heading of its December 11 follow-up letter, and frames its subsequent engagement with SIC in terms of compliance not voluntary uptake.

But on the specific claim that the communication was an encouragement rather than a directive, the documentary evidence does not support Mr. Agyenim-Boateng's position.