Accra: Policy analyst and Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised concerns over the State Interests and Governance Authority's (SIGA) latest State Ownership Report, highlighting several errors and inconsistencies that cast doubt on the reported improvement in the performance of state-owned enterprises.
According to Ghana Web, Mr. Simons, in a post on X, stated that SIGA's report, which claimed a significant profit of GHS19.80 billion for 2025, was flawed. He argued that his analysis revealed numerous discrepancies that undermined the report's reliability. Utilizing tools like Tabula and Excel Power Query, he and his team extracted and evaluated financial data from the report, finding 'bizarre errors, misstatements, confusions, and flawed inferences.'
Simons pointed out that the net loss figures for 2023 were inconsistently reported as GHS2,573.2 million in the 2023 report, GHS7,143.5 million in the 2024 report, and GHS6,823.55 million in the 2025 report. Additionally, the net loss for 2022 and revenue figures for 2021 appeared in multiple variations across different reports. Another major inconsistency he highlighted was the total liabilities for 2021, which were reported as GHS135,883 million in the 2021 report, GHS172,043 million in the 2023 report, and GHS135,914 million in the 2025 report.
Simons further challenged SIGA's assertion regarding the improved profitability of state-owned enterprises in 2025. He argued that after excluding currency effects, net profit actually dropped by 17.1 percent, operating profit decreased by 22.7 percent, and operating margin narrowed by 3.5 percentage points between 2024 and 2025. The reported profit increase, he claimed, was mainly due to foreign exchange revaluations at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Highlighting the impact of these revaluations, Simons noted that ECG shifted from an exchange rate loss of GHS8,837.71 million in 2024 to a gain of GHS12,157.79 million in 2025. This GHS20,995.50 million swing accounted for 95.2 percent of the total profit swing reported by SIGA. Without these revaluations, ECG's operating result would have changed from a GHS1.84 billion profit to a GHS14.25 billion loss.
Simons also questioned the dividend figures, revealing that only $1.4 million in dividends were realized from 53 fully state-owned enterprises in 2025, marking a 45.5 percent decline from 2024. He further alleged a GHS50.9 billion error in SIGA's 2021 cost figure, stating that GHS104.97 billion was used instead of GHS54.04 billion, and that this error was carried over from the 2023 figure.
Calling for accountability, Bright Simons urged SIGA to withdraw its reports dating back to 2020 and rectify the errors before releasing a reliable series of figures. He emphasized the need for accurate reporting to properly assess the performance of state-owned enterprises.