The financial performance of Ghana’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) deteriorated in 2025 when currency effects are excluded, despite a reported turnaround from a GH¢2.26 billion net loss in 2024 to a GH¢19.80 billion net profit, policy analyst Bright Simons has argued.
The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), in its 2025 State Ownership Report, presented the movement from loss to profit as a major improvement in the financial fortunes of state-owned and controlled enterprises.
However, Mr Simons said a comparison of the underlying figures between 2024 and 2025 produced a significantly different outcome.
He said adjusted net profit declined from GH¢9.75 billion in 2024 to GH¢8.08 billion in 2025, representing a 17.1 per cent fall.
“State-owned businesses’ underlying profitability declined in 2025. You heard that right,” Mr Simons said, arguing that the result contrasts sharply with the turnaround narrative presented by SIGA.
He said operating profit also fell by 22.7 per cent over the period, while the operating margin narrowed by 3.5 percentage points.
The comparison, according to Mr Simons, demonstrates the importance of separating currency-related gains from the underlying operating performance of state enterprises.
“In simple terms: SIGA told us that a loss of GHS 2.26 billion in 2024 switched into a profit of GHS19.80 billion in 2025,” he said.
“But as everyone now knows, if you ignore the currency revaluations, profit actually fell from GHS9.75 billion to GHS8.08 billion, a decline of 17.1 per cent.”
Mr Simons also disputed the significance of the reported 976 per cent improvement between 2024 and 2025, saying such a percentage comparison was inappropriate because the calculation moves from a negative result to a positive one.
Beyond the 2024-2025 comparison, he said inconsistencies in SIGA’s historical data further complicated efforts to establish a reliable trend in SOE performance.
He cited the net loss for 2023, which he said was reported differently in three successive reports: GH¢2.57 billion in 2023, GH¢7.14 billion in 2024 and GH¢6.82 billion in 2025.
He similarly identified varying figures for 2022 losses, 2021 revenue and total liabilities, arguing that the discrepancies made cross-year comparisons difficult.
Mr Simons urged greater caution in interpreting the reported GH¢19.8 billion profit, saying the headline figure should not be viewed in isolation from currency effects and inconsistencies in the underlying data.
