According to Mr Joseph Cudjoe, Minister of Public Enterprises, the government’s proposal to sell 17 defunct State-Owned Companies’ (SOEs) assets will allow it to raise private capital for the growth of those companies and the resulting effects on the communities in which they were located.
This comes after his revelation last Wednesday in Accra that the government intended to sell the assets of 17 idle SOEs whose evaluation procedures had already been authorised by the cabinet.
The Ghana National Trading Corporation, State Construction Corporation, State Fishing Corporation, UAC, Aboso Glass Factory, bungalow of the Bolgatanga Meat Factory, Bonsa Tyre Factory’s Clinic, research facility of the Ghana Consolidated Diamonds, and the regional office of the Ghana Food Production Corporation at Srodae were some of these SOEs, he claimed.
In a Wednesday interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show (CBS) on Citi FM in Accra, he described the strategy, saying it is part of efforts “…to make sure we secure our private investments into it through government decision to sell them off into private hand so that they will be invested into to develop them to bring jobs to that area.”
He believed that these investments, particularly the rapidly growing vehicle assembling sector, would be essential to the government’s industrialization plan.
Meanwhile, the Minister said the government also had plans to restructure some SOEs through listing them on the Ghana Stock Exchange, liquidation, strategic investment and outright disposal.
As part of efforts to ensure effective and efficient management of the SOEs, the Minister said, in 2021 it introduced a Public Enterprises League Table (PELT) as a tool for assessing the performances of the Specified Entities and to engender healthy competition amongst them for improved performance.
