President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that 10 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been prepared for listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) as part of efforts to improve their governance and reduce political interference.

According to him, the move will help transform the way state-owned companies are managed while allowing the public, including Ghanaians in the diaspora, to acquire shares in the enterprises.

See why Aliko Dangote is trending

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, President Mahama said the decision was partly informed by concerns about the management of state enterprises, with some companies continuing to pay salaries and demand bonuses and salary increases despite making losses.

“There’s this notion of state enterprises where people just go and they’re guaranteed a monthly salary, whether they perform well, they don’t, even when they’re making losses, they’re asking for salary increments and asking for bonuses when you’ve made a loss,” he said.

He said efforts to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises had started yielding results, noting that the companies had collectively moved from making losses to recording significant profits.

“But we managed to turn around the story. Collectively, they made a loss, but last year, I think we just held the State Interest and Governance Authority programme, and they have made a net profit of almost 19 billion cedis,” he said.

He said the turnaround showed that reforms were taking place but stressed that further steps were needed to strengthen the governance of the enterprises.

President Mahama explained that listing the companies on the stock exchange would help reduce government control over their management and boards.

“So they’ll become publicly listed companies, one, because we want to improve their governance, and two, because we want to reduce political interference in those state-owned enterprises,” he said.

He said listing more state-owned companies would make political changes more difficult and create greater stability in their management.

BoG Governor reveals resignation from GoldBod Board five months ago

“If we list more of these companies, it makes it difficult for government to interfere and sack the management and dissolve the boards and all that,” he said.

The listings would also create an opportunity for Ghanaians living abroad to invest in the companies through the Ghana Stock Exchange.

He described the GSE as a strong investment platform, pointing to its recent performance and the successful completion of three initial public offerings within a short period.

“The Ghana Stock Exchange was the best performing in Africa, you know, last year, and it’s bounced back. We did three IPOs in record time,” he said.

DR/MA

Begging for tips at the airport undermines Ghana’s image – President Mahama