A Deputy Minister of Finance verbally directed state entities to do business with SIC Life Insurance during the inauguration of the company’s board, the Managing Director of SIC Life Insurance, Solomon Twum Barima, has revealed.
Mr Twum Barima disclosed on PM Express, confirming that no written directive from the Ministry of Finance exists to back up the public pronouncement.
“When the Board of SIC Life was being inaugurated, the Deputy Minister of Finance noted or directed that the state entities should do business with SIC Life Insurance,” he said.
“There is no written directive from the Ministry of Finance.”
The SIC Life MD also revealed that similar verbal directives were issued at the inauguration of the boards of state-owned banks, including the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), GCB Bank, NIB, and ADB, where the Ministry of Finance directed state entities to do business with those banks as well.
Mr Twum Barima appeared to present the parallel bank directives as context, suggesting the SIC instruction was not unusual, framing it as part of a broader government effort to strengthen state-linked financial institutions.
But the disclosure raises fresh questions about the true origin and scope of the directive at the centre of Ghana’s insurance sector controversy. Until now, public attention had focused primarily on written communications from the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), including a December 11, 2025, letter bearing the subject heading “Directive to State-Owned Enterprises to Prioritise the Use of State-Owned Insurance Companies.”
Mr Twum Barima’s revelation suggests the policy signal began earlier at a ministerial inauguration and was never committed to paper.
The absence of a written directive compounds the governance concerns already raised by IMANI Africa in its formal petition to President Mahama.
A verbal ministerial instruction that triggers shifts in procurement behaviour across state institutions, without documentation, evaluation, or competitive process, sits even further outside the framework of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663), which requires transparency, documented justification, and competitive tendering.
IMANI founder Franklin Cudjoe petitioned President Mahama on March 30, 2026, warning of a systematic takeover of state insurance portfolios by “unseen political hands” hiding behind administrative directives. The Office of the President acknowledged the petition on April 1, 2026.
SIC Insurance MD James Agyenim-Boateng had previously told JoyNews that SIGA’s communications amounted to encouragement, not a directive.
The December 11 SIGA letter, now in the public domain, used the word “directive” in its subject heading and referenced compliance follow-up in its body.
Mr Twum Barima’s disclosure now adds a verbal ministerial instruction to that paper — and off-paper — trail.
The Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG) this week joined IMANI’s petition in substance, with its president, Stephen Kwarteng Yeboah, calling for all state insurance procurement to be fully subjected to Ghana’s public procurement system.
Industry veteran Sir Sam Jonah had earlier described the pattern of interference as “deeply troubling and dangerously systemic.”
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