Minister Responsible for State Enterprises Tours NPRA
The Minister of State responsible for State Enterprises, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe has indicated that the government is working towards repositioning State Enterprises to be more efficient and profitable to contribute meaningfully to the economy of the country.
He noted that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of transforming state enterprises must therefore be shared by all heads of government institutions. He said this is the primary reason why heads of state enterprises must be committed to working with passion and dedication to communicate a new direction.
Hon. Cudjoe was addressing the Management of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) during a familiarisation visit to the Authority. The visit was part of his tour of State Enterprises in the country to share the President’s vision of helping to make such institutions more viable. The NPRA was the 36th state enterprise visited by the Minister.
Hon Cudjoe who is also the Member of Parliament for the Effia Constituency in the Western Region noted that the nation is at a point where there is the need to take difficult decisions and go forward in its quest for economic survival.
He acknowledged that the President looks out for a public sector enterprise that is efficient, and “my portfolio comes with a very big task, which I need your support for us to achieve together.” He added. The Minister of State explained that the expectation of the President is for state enterprises to operate profitably to support the Ministry of Finance’s budget.
This is why you may have noticed that the President has made a lot of restructuring since 2017. The Honourable Minister bemoaned past approaches to the managing of state enterprises and described it as funny.
“Hitherto, in the past, the module Ghana was operating in running state enterprises was funny, funny because from independence what we were doing was for Board of Directors overciting of the public enterprise and when they collapse, they pass on to other institutions to dispose them off, so, we will successfully hatch an institution and nurture it to collapse and then you can sell it off.” He observed.
He added that the nation cannot continue that trajectory and called on all heads of state enterprises to work hard to change the status quo.
He called on them to make sure that state enterprises exist to achieve the objective for which it was set up. According to him, this is why the decision came up to have a single-bonified entity as in State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) backed by law to ensure that this agenda is achieved.
“With the SIGA act is with a Ministerial order to oversite SIGA to ensure that the policies necessary for the public enterprise are brought to cabinet attention. “He noted.
Honourable Cudjoe commended the management of the NPRA for ensuring prudent policies that have made the Authority efficient.
The CEO of the Authority said the Authority has worked hard to ensure compliance and effective regulation in the pension industry resulting in nearly fifty billion Ghana cedis in Assets Under Management.
