The Director-General of SIGA, Hon. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng has praised the Staff in his outfit for their commitment to work and professionalism.

He made this known when he appeared as a guest on Accra based Starr FM this morning. The Director-General was speaking on the performance of State Entities under the watch of SIGA as an oversight body over SOEs, JVCs and Specified Entities. Hon. Asamoah-Boateng revealed that Ghana has not reaped much benefit from State Enterprises from Independence and praised H. E. President Nana Akufo-Addo for his vision to set up one Entity to hold and administer government’s interest in Specified Entities.

Tracing the history of SIGA, he said it existed in the past as State Enterprises Secretariat (SES) under the office of the President during Dr. Nkrumah reign. Under the reign of General Acheampong, it existed as Ghana Industrial Holding Company Limited (GIHOC), however, all the companies under GIHOC have collapsed leaving the distillery to be the only survivor.

He also mentioned that the name was subsequently changed to the State Enterprise Commission (SEC) till the time he was appointed as the Executive Chairman of the Commission.

“We have undergone a lot of transformation not just in name but in several areas including the passage of an Act of parliament, ACT 990.  It is instructive to note that the SIGA Act was passed twice in a week. This shows the level of cooperation we received from the members of parliament both majority and minority and I am very grateful to them” he mentioned. He also said, “in addition to the above, we had to merge the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) with the old SEC to form SIGA. They used this opportunity to improve on our staff numbers as well. From a staff strength of 48 today we have 126 highly qualified staff who are helping turn things around. Only two people from the old SEC have retired.’’

The Director-General also answered questions on the 2019 State Ownership Report which has posted a very positive outlook for State owned-enterprises. Hon. Asamoah-Boateng said although SIGA still has a long way to go he is happy with the calibre of staff and their commitment. He thanked the staff of now defunct SEC and DIC, on how well they bonded with the new staff that have been recruited particularly from the private sector.

He also asked Ghanaians to get ready to own a part of 10 State Owned Enterprises which are going to be placed on the stock exchange soon.