SIC Financial Services Ltd. (SIC-FSL) has decided to cut the salaries of its Acting Managing Director and all staff by 20 percent starting in October 2025. The company says this painful step is needed to keep the struggling business alive.
In a press release on September 11 signed by Acting Managing Director Dr. Sa-ad Iddrisu, the company explained that the cuts are part of a plan to save money and bring the company back on its feet. “As part of efforts to salvage SIC Financial Services Ltd (SIC-FSL) and bring it back to glory, Management, led by Dr. Sa-ad Iddrisu, has decided to cut the Managing Director’s and all staff salaries by 20%, effective next month, October 2025,” the statement said.
SIC-FSL said it is still open for business and will soon launch new products to win back customers. “We wish to assure the public that SIC-FSL is still open to taking on new businesses from clients and shall be rolling out new products as well, with the first set of new products expected to be available by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025,” it added.
This shows how far the company has fallen from the strong start it once had. SIC-FSL was set up in 2005 as part of SIC Insurance Company Limited, which owns 70 percent, while SIC Life Company Limited owns the other 30 percent. Both parent companies are owned by the government, so SIC-FSL once had the trust and support of the state.
It is licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to give investment advice and trade on the Ghana Stock Exchange, and by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority to manage pensions. At first, it was seen as safe and reliable.
But over the years, things went badly. A former shareholder said SIC borrowed money just to pay dividends in 2023 because it had no profit of its own. He also complained about suspicious sales of company property, random staff transfers, and weak supervision from the National Insurance Commission.
SIC-FSL was also taken to court by Ivory Finance over a guaranteed loan to a real estate company called Ital Construct. The loan later grew into a debt of more than GHS 550 million.
An Auditor-General’s report also said the Venture Capital Trust Fund wrongly paid about US$3.6 million to SIC-FSL and two other groups in a property deal, and found poor record keeping in many of the company’s loan files.
Workers inside the company have often complained about low morale, poor working conditions and delays in getting paid. Many clients have also lost trust. At Koforidua Technical University, more than 500 staff said SIC-FSL failed to pay over GH¢9 million in their provident funds from a deal signed around 2010. By 2022, the university ended its deal with SIC-FSL, saying it had failed to pay retirees, give insurance packages, or help sick members get medical support.
Even with all these problems, SIC-FSL’s licence was never cancelled, not even when the Bank of Ghana closed many fund management companies during the financial sector clean-up from 2017 to 2020. Many people believe the only reason SIC-FSL survived was because it is owned by the state, not because it was doing well. They say this special treatment delayed the tough changes the company needed to make.
Now, under Dr. Iddrisu, the company is trying to make a comeback. It is cutting salaries, planning new products before the end of 2025, chasing people who owe it money, and asking the government for help to pay back locked-up client funds. But after years of debts, angry workers and lost trust, it is not clear if this last effort will save SIC-FSL or just delay its collapse.
