Members at the ceremony
Government is working assiduously to address the legacy debts accrued by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through recapitalisation and other stimulus packages, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
He said these assistances would be provided based on financial audits of the enterprises and those that are deemed viable would be the beneficiaries.
The President gave the assurance yesterday in a speech read on his behalf by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maarfo, during the signing ceremony of 2019 performance contracts between SOEs and the government in Accra.
President Akufo-Addo said government was putting in measures to deal with the energy sector legacy debts through the establishment of ESLA Company for the purpose of refinancing the energy sector debt.
He said through the framework, SOEs debts amounting to approximately GH¢5.3 billion have so far been settled.
He added that government was also on track with its strategy to use the proceeds accruing from the Energy Sector Levy Account to support the restructuring of the energy sector SOEs, so as to sustain investments in the sector.
“My government is quite aware that most of the SOEs we inherited in 2017 were found in very poor financial positions, however, it is my expectation that you would work to restore these financially weak enterprises to good financial health,” he said.
He said a bill to establish the State Investments and Governance Authority (SIGA) to oversee and administer the equality investments of the state has been approved by cabinet and would soon be laid before parliament adding that it was the resolve of government to grow the country beyond aid with the help of the SOEs.
The President noted the SOEs have the potential and could be a powerful sector for national economic development and accelerate the pace of socio economic transformation of the country.
“The role of the SOEs are not only determined and measured largely by their contribution to GDP but more importantly, by playing leading roles in economic growth, that should propel us to our vision of moving “Ghana Beyond Aid,” he said.
He said government has also noticed with concern the unhealthy working relationship between some board of directors and their chief executive officers which could affect achieving targets set in the performance contracts and the advancement of the policy directions and initiatives.
According to the President that the daily running of the businesses was the job of the chief executive officers and their management teams.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, who signed the contracts on behalf of government, said the importance of SOEs was for the strategic growth of the economy, saying that, the onus therefore was on the Boards and management teams to have a benchmark which could spur them to contribute to national development.
He said they must take pride in the fact that they were managing national assets and should manage them to the best of their abilities.
Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Executive Chairman of State Enterprises Commission commended some of the SOEs for working hard to turn the fortunes of the organisations, adding that there was the need to increase revenue, cut cost and avoid wastage.
He said the Commission would be instituting a bi-annual reporting to let Ghanaians know the performance of each SOEs through the publishing of a league table on an agreed criteria.
By Lawrence Markwei
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