Claim: SOEs paid 53.6% more dividends to the government in 2025 as compared to 2024
Source: Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Verdict: Misleading
Researched by Alfa Shaban
On August 31, 2026, Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, reacted to the release of the 2025 State Ownership Report comparing dividend payments by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to the government in 2024 and 2025.
The minister’s post on X and Facebook read: “SIGA’s State Ownership Report reveals that SOEs paid GHS1.136 billion dividend to government in 2024. In 2025, they paid GHS 1.746 billion, representing an increase of 53.6%.
The State Ownership Report is an annual publication by the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), a central oversight body established to streamline the governance and performance of Specified Entities (SEs) – including State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Joint Venture Companies (JVCs), and Other State Entities (OSEs).
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This fact-check will verify the dividend figures the minister cited and the associated percentage growth.
Fact-check
GhanaFact reviewed the 2024 and 2025 State Ownership Reports and found that the figures quoted by the minister did not relate to SOEs’ dividends specifically. They are related to general dividend receipts the government recieved from SOEs, Joint Venture Companies (JVCs), and Other State Entities (OSEs).
Regarding the State-Owned Enterprises dividends in 2024, GH₵29.36 million was paid, while only GH₵ 16 million was paid in 2025.
Three SOEs paid dividends in 2024: Ghana Reinsurance, TDC Development Company and State Housing Company Limited. In 2025, only Ghana Reinsurance and TDC Development Company paid dividends.
| Report | SOE Dividend (GHS) | Number of SOEs that paid |
| 2024 | 29.36 million | Three |
| 2025 | 16 million | Two |
Where are the figures the minister cited from?
They were general Dividend Contributions for the full year 2025, as captured on pages 360 and 361. It read as follows: “Dividend receipts in FY2025 amounted to GHS1,746.29million, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 53.60 percent compared with the GHS1,136.97million recorded in FY2024.”
The table below shows the figures specific to SOE dividends, which are captured as 29.36 and 16 million Ghana cedis for 2024 and 2025, respectively.
In percentage terms, the minister’s claim of an increase of 53.6% in SOE dividend payments between 2024 and 2025 is false because, between the two years (16 million and 29.36 million in 2025 and 2024, respectively), there was a 29.36% decline in dividends paid, not an increase.
A source at SIGA confirmed in a phone interview with GhanaFact that the Minister mistakenly referred to dividends in the full State Entities portfolio which is way bigger than that of SOEs alone. The source added that SOEs and JVCs report under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and are measured by their profitability and dividends paid to the government.
We reached out to the government spokesperson via email but have yet to receive a response.
Verdict
From the above, Felix Kwakye Ofosu’s figures on SOE dividends in the 2025 State Ownership Report are misleading.
