Mr Edmond Kombat, Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery Limited (TOR), took to the stage at the Government Accountability Series Press Conference in Accra to confront the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over its persistent prescriptions for state‑owned enterprises.
Kombat noted that the Fund appears to be revising its literature because its past advice “hasn’t helped” developing countries. He was responding to a question about the recent visit by an IMF delegation to the state‑owned refinery.
The MD highlighted that the IMF has written extensively about Ghana’s energy sector, including TOR. He traced Ghana’s history with IMF‑backed programmes—from the Economic Recovery Programme to the Financial Sector Recovery Programme and the Divestiture of State Enterprises—observing that the Fund traditionally promoted private business and “usually they don’t like state entities running businesses.”
“But it looks like they are changing their literature, because most of those prescriptions that they give actually haven’t helped the developing countries,” Kombat said. He added that state‑owned enterprises in Ghana were beginning to prove that state institutions can run businesses effectively and profitably.
“We were happy to receive them and show them that under His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, state entities are working, and are working profitably, and are not the lost making entities,” he added. Kombat noted that the IMF delegation seemed impressed, but he reiterated that Ghana remains guarded.
With Ghana’s energy sector showing resilience, TOR’s MD calls for a reassessment of IMF guidance to better support developing economies.
