SOEs Hold 50% of Ghana’s Assets, Yet Offer “No” Return – Why the Reset Agenda Must Prioritise Corporate Governance – Dr. Donkor

As the government implements its reset agenda to give the country a fresh start to socio-economic development, Dr. Kwabena Donkor is urging President John Dramani Mahama to prioritise the corporate governance issues that caused a rot in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Making a case for why the reset must begin with the SOEs sector, he reveals that these enterprises control about 50% of Ghana’s state assets and hence the government cannot watch as its resources and valuable assets go down the drain.

In an exclusive interview with The High Street Journal, Dr. Donkor unpacked the historic and systemic dysfunctions plaguing Ghana’s public corporate sector, warning that the continued mismanagement, lack of accountability, and leadership deficits within SOEs pose a fundamental risk to national development.

SOEs – A Potential Driver of Development, Yet Deeply Underperforming

According to Dr. Donkor, Ghana’s public sector has always played a commanding role in Ghana’s economy. This legacy dates back to the post-independence economic planning. Amid the mass divestiture and privatisation, today the SOEs and covered entities account for an estimated 50% of the nation’s assets, ranging from infrastructure and energy to logistics and financial services.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor argues that when you have this sector controlling about half the assets of the Ghanaian state and they are mismanaged, the impact on national development is phenomenal.

He therefore cannot fathom why successive governments have looked on for many of these corporations to either post annual losses or, even when profitable, fail to pay dividends to their sole shareholder, who are the people of Ghana.

To deepen the issues, he revealed that some have no audited financial statements for years, a glaring breach of both transparency and legal compliance.

“By the very nature of our society, we have a very large and impactful public sector. And it is estimated that 50% of the assets of the Ghanaian state are in the hands of state-owned enterprises,” he told The High Street Journal.

Corporate Governance Crisis- A Major Achilles Heel of SOEs

Diagnosing the major problems of the SOEs in the country, Dr. Donkor, noted that the issue is more than just weak performance. He says it’s a structural and corporate governance failure.

“Corporate governance has been the Achilles heel of the Ghanaian state,” he asserted.

He explains corporate governance as the architecture by which corporates are governed, including both state-controlled companies and statutory corporations. Many were established by Acts of Parliament and are supposed to operate with a degree of legal and managerial autonomy.

However, Dr. Donkor points to years of neglect, political interference, and limited oversight as the root causes of their dysfunction.

Going back in history, he contended that the problem isn’t new. Attempts to bring oversight, first through the State Enterprises Commission, and now the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) under Act 990, have made little impact, often becoming bureaucratic shells with minimal enforcement power.

“The commission was more noticed by its lack of enforcement than anything else,” Dr. Donkor said, lamenting the inability of regulatory bodies to compel accountability.

Leadership Crisis and the Cost of Poor Appointments

A central failure, Dr. Donkor contends, lies in the selection and quality of leadership across many of Ghana’s SOEs. Political patronage, cronyism, and appointments that prioritise loyalty over merit have created a cycle of incompetence and mismanagement.

He cannot fathom why there are corporate bodies managing the assets of the state and making significant losses on yearly basis but no one seems to care.

This results in not only wasted national resources but also the collapse of once-vibrant state institutions that were originally envisioned to play a leading role in Ghana’s economic independence and industrialisation.

“There’s been relatively little accountability. In fact, there are corporate bodies that have not published their accounts. Their financial statements have not been audited for five years or more,” he remarked.

He added that, “you have corporate bodies, some being limited liability companies, incurring losses year in and year out. And nobody seems to care. Others claim they are making profits, and yet they don’t pay dividends to the shareholder, which is the state of Ghana.”

President Mahama‘s Reset Agenda – SOEs Must be Prioritised

The corporate governance consultant believes that, as President John Mahama positions his Reset Ghana Agenda as a socio-economic intervention, it will remain mere rhetoric unless it begins with real, structural reform in the SOE sector.

He specifies that for SOEs with commercial mandates, the focus must be on making them financially viable, entrepreneurial, and responsive to market realities.

For regulatory or non-commercial entities, the emphasis should be on efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and clear performance metrics.

Dr. Donkor also revisited Ghana’s Seven-Year Development Plan, which once envisioned state-led enterprises eventually being floated on the stock market to enable broad Ghanaian participation. That vision, he argues, is still valid, but only if governance, transparency, and performance are restored.

He said, “I am convinced that President Muhammad’s research agenda must focus on state-owned enterprises, making them commercially responsive, making them viable, and making them entrepreneurial.”

“Proper governance of corporations has become critical to the Ghanaian economy, particularly in terms of the reset agenda of President John Dramani Mahama. If the reset agenda is to move beyond being a slogan to become actually impactful on the macro economy, then we’ll have to take a second look at corporate governance, good corporate governance, and further entrench it into the body politic,” he remarked.

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