Every student of Ghanaian public administration knows that real governance is not measured by eloquent speeches at news conferences. It is found in the quiet, disciplined machinery of compliance, regulatory oversight, and total transparency with the taxpayer’s money.
When the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) released its 2025 State Ownership Report, it laid bare a troubling trend across state enterprises. While government communicators attempt to construct a narrative of sweeping public sector progress, the cold numbers inside SIGA’s official compliance tracking tell a vastly different story.
Nowhere is this gap more glaring than at the Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM) under Chief Executive Officer Hon. Sylvester Adinam Mensah, and the Ghana Digital Centres Limited (GDCL) headed by Chief Executive Officer Dzifa Gunu.
Table 0.2 on page xvi of the report acts as a mirror that cannot lie. Both state entities stood accused of disregarding basic, mandatory regulatory directives set by SIGA to protect state funds.
STATUTORY OVERSIGHT & COMPLIANCE (FY2025)
Compliance Metric Ghana Exim Bank Ghana Digital Centre
Audited Financial Statements Submitted (Audited) Failed (Draft Only)
Signed Performance Contract FAILED (No Contract) FAILED (No Contract)
Quarterly Reports to SIGA FAILED (Not Submitted) FAILED (Not Submitted)
Annual General Meeting (AGM) FAILED (Not Held) FAILED (Not Held)
Employment Data Submitted Submitted
To fully grasp the magnitude of this failure, one must reflect on the governance baseline built under the previous New Patriotic Party administration. The NPP’s creation and strengthening of SIGA under the Public Financial Management framework was an intentional act of statecraft. The policy objective was clear: bring an end to the era where state-owned enterprises operated like sovereign fiefdoms without accountability, unverified spending, and missing books.
Under that framework, every public chief executive officer understood that signing a binding performance contract was not an option. Submitting quarterly monitoring reports to SIGA was a statutory command, and subjecting books to external audits before making public claims was non-negotiable.
What the current report shows is an alarming relaxation of that institutional discipline under the NDC administration.
At the Ghana Export-Import Bank, Sylvester Mensah—a veteran public officer—managed to file audited balance sheets for 2025. Yet, GEXIM breached almost every other major administrative directive. The bank failed to sign its FY2025 Performance Contract with SIGA. It failed to submit required quarterly operational reports throughout the entire year. It completely ignored its obligation to hold an Annual General Meeting or Stakeholder Engagement.
GEXIM is not a small social welfare club. It is Ghana’s primary trade finance bank, handling millions of dollars aimed at driving local industry and exports. When the head of such a policy bank operates for an entire financial year without a signed performance contract or quarterly monitoring by SIGA, the public is left completely in the dark regarding risk management, loan distribution, and operational efficiency.
The picture grows even darker at the Ghana Digital Centres Limited. Under Chief Executive Officer Dzifa Gunu, the institution suffered a near-total blackout in statutory reporting.
GDCL failed to produce Audited Financial Statements for FY2025, handing over unverified draft accounts instead. Just like GEXIM, it failed to sign a Performance Contract, ignored quarterly reporting obligations to SIGA, and bypassed its required Annual General Meeting.
When an agency tasked with driving the nation’s digital ecosystem operates on unverified draft numbers and refuses to sign performance benchmarks with its regulator, how can the public measure its true output?
Public management requires total openness. Unsigned performance contracts mean executive officers operate without measurable targets. Omitted quarterly reports leave SIGA without early warning indicators when public capital is mismanaged. Unaudited draft accounts expose public balance sheets to unverified operational claims.
The NPP built a structured, disciplined framework where state managers were held strictly to account. The current evidence inside SIGA’s report suggests those high standards are being systematically discarded.
Ghanaian taxpayers who fund these institutions do not want polished public relations campaigns. They deserve chief executives who respect state oversight, obey statutory directives, and subject their management to full, audited verification.
