Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has questioned the accuracy of the State Interests and Governance Authority’s (SIGA) reported GH¢19.8 billion combined net profit recorded by Ghana’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in 2025.
SIGA’s 2025 State Ownership Report described the results as a major improvement in the financial performance of the state-owned enterprise sector.
According to the report, total revenue increased by 28.12%, rising from GH¢137.64 billion in 2024 to GH¢176.43 billion in 2025. The SOEs also moved from a combined net loss of GH¢2.26 billion in 2024 to a reported net profit of GH¢19.8 billion in 2025.
Mr Simons, however, has challenged the interpretation of these figures, arguing that the reported improvement was significantly influenced by currency-related gains rather than stronger underlying business performance.
According to the policy analyst, excluding the effects of currency movements presents a markedly different picture of the financial health of the state-owned enterprises.
In a post on X, he described SIGA’s reported figures as “bizarre” and argued that the headline profit figures could give a misleading impression of the sector’s actual operational performance.
“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 per cent, operating profit fell 22.7 per cent, and the operating margin narrowed by three and a half percentage points between 2024 and 2025,” he stated.
Mr Simons said the headline figures could suggest that SOEs had made a dramatic recovery from the losses recorded in 2024.
He maintained, however, that the picture changes once currency revaluations are removed from the calculations.
“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. 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,” he said.
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.
— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) August 31, 2026
2. This was presented as a massive turnaround after years of losses.
3. Someone… pic.twitter.com/oh3bgtxmrF
Mr Simons’ analysis therefore raises questions about whether the reported return to profitability represents a genuine improvement in the operational performance of Ghana’s state-owned enterprises or was largely driven by favourable currency movements.
Also read:
