Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, says the IMF’s criticism of political appointments to Ghana’s state-owned enterprise boards should not be treated as an attack on the governing NDC.
He said the politicisation of SOE boards is a problem that has affected successive governments.
The IMF report noted that boards of major SOEs were largely dominated by political appointees, with board chairpersons frequently being ministers, Members of Parliament or prominent party officials.
Kwaku Azar said the observation should not be reduced to a criticism of the current government simply because the IMF used current boards as examples.
“The disease is politicisation of SOE boards, not use of current example,” he said.
He said the report covered developments over a decade and also assessed the situation when the IMF mission visited Ghana in November and December 2025.
According to him, the examples involving institutions such as the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and the Volta River Authority should be understood as illustrations of a wider problem.
“Current examples have names, but the structural problem does not become partisan,” he said.
Kwaku Azar said Ghanaian professionals and civil society organisations had raised similar concerns about political patronage and the independence of SOE boards long before the IMF report.
He cited concerns raised by organisations including CDD-Ghana, IMANI Africa and ACEP about political influence over state institutions.
He also referred to a June 30, 2026 workshop where the Ghana Organisation of Government Officials said, “A party chairman should not simultaneously chair the board of a state-owned enterprise. The referee cannot wear a team’s jersey.”
Kwaku Azar said Ghana should therefore stop treating criticism of politicised SOE appointments as a partisan issue.
“The real issue is not whether the IMF embarrassed NDC or supplied ammunition to NPP, but whether Ghana should keep treating strategic public enterprises as extensions of the party in power,” he said.
