The Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has challenged the State Interests and Governance Authority’s (SIGA) claim that Ghana’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) recorded a combined net profit of GH¢19.8 billion in 2025.

His comments follow the release of SIGA’s 2025 State Ownership Report, which highlighted significant improvements in the financial performance of SOEs during the year.

In a post on his X page sighted by GhanaWeb Business on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, Simons described the reported figures as “bizarre” and argued that the apparent improvement in profitability was largely influenced by currency revaluations.

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According to the SIGA report, total revenue generated by the covered SOEs increased by 28.12%, from GH¢137.64 billion in 2024 to GH¢176.43 billion in 2025.

The reported net profit of GH¢19.8 billion also represented a significant turnaround from the previous year, when the SOEs recorded a combined net loss of GH¢2.26 billion.

However, Simons questioned the basis for the reported improvement, arguing that the headline figures do not provide an accurate picture of the underlying performance of the state-owned enterprises when the effects of currency movements are taken into account.

He said a comparison excluding currency effects presents a markedly different picture of the SOEs’ financial performance between 2024 and 2025.

“State-owned businesses’ underlying profitability declined in 2025. You heard that right. Contrary to what SIGA says, when you remove the currency effects, net profit fell 17.1 percent, operating profit fell 22.7 percent, and the operating margin narrowed by three and a half percentage points between 2024 and 2025,” he stated.

Simons said SIGA’s reported movement from a combined loss in 2024 to a substantial profit in 2025 could create the impression of a dramatic improvement in the operational performance of SOEs.

He argued, however, that excluding currency revaluations reveals a decline in profitability.

“SIGA told us that a loss of GH¢2.26 billion in 2024 switched into a profit of GH¢19.80 billion in 2025,” he said.

“But as everyone now knows, if you ignore the currency revaluations, profit actually fell from GH¢9.75 billion to GH¢8.08 billion, a decline of 17.1 percent,” he added.

1. This thread is for compatriots who prefer visuals to text.

2. Courtesy of Mermaid, we tell the same story we have done in previous posts about how the recent SIGA report misrepresents the real situation with state-owned businesses in Ghana. But we do so with fewer words and… pic.twitter.com/iOeDtrCfkN

— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) September 1, 2026

1. We were all there when SIGA, an agency that regulates state-owned or controlled businesses and parastatals, came and told us that state-controlled businesses have made incredible profits in 2025.

2. This was presented as a massive turnaround after years of losses.

3. Someone… pic.twitter.com/oh3bgtxmrF

— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) August 31, 2026