Banking and Corporate Governance Consultant, Dr Richmond Atuahene, has called for a critical review of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), warning that reported profits may not necessarily reflect improved operational efficiency.

He said the country must distinguish between strategically important state enterprises and those that could be removed from government’s portfolio.

“My comment is that we need to sit down as a country and begin to take a critical look at the SOEs and look at the strategic and the non-strategic that we can get out of the way,” he said on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday.

His comments come shortly after the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) reported a sharp turnaround in the financial performance of SOEs in 2025.

According to SIGA’s 2025 State Ownership Report, SOEs recorded a combined net profit after tax of GH¢19.8 billion in 2025, compared with a GH¢2.25 billion net loss in 2024.

Revenue also increased by 28.12 per cent to GH¢176.43 billion from GH¢137.64 billion.

However, the report also showed that the performance was not uniform across the state enterprise sector. Five SOEs, including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), recorded losses every year from 2021 to 2025.

Dr Atuahene believes the headline profit figures must therefore be subjected to closer scrutiny.

“For me, the profit may look good, or people can say it, but is it driven by operational efficiency? Absolutely not,” he said.

He argued that Ghana cannot rely on factors other than improved operations to sustain the performance of its state enterprises.

“And if you are not driven by operational efficiency, you can’t continue like that,” he said.

The consultant also expressed concern that the country appears to be revisiting the same challenges year after year without making fundamental changes to the structure and management of SOEs.

“We are discussing the same thing. It becomes something that you look at, and you get worried,” he said.

He recalled that the issue had already been discussed about a year ago, stressing the need for the country to move beyond repeated discussions and take difficult decisions on the future of state-owned enterprises.

“Last year, we sat here last year, I think myself, Professor Bokpin, and we discussed it, and just about a year, we are discussing the same thing,” he said.

SIGA itself has called for stronger accountability, disciplined capital allocation and decisive action across the state enterprise sector.

The 2025 report also showed that the broader category of Other State Entities recorded a net deficit of GH¢10.48 billion, while the government received only GH¢16 million in dividends from two SOEs.

For Dr Atuahene, the latest figures should therefore trigger a deeper national conversation about which enterprises remain strategically necessary and which ones should be reconsidered.