NAFCO posts GH₵91.7 million pre-tax profit for 2025, its best since 2011, says CEO

Pinned summary · as of 16:44

GH₵91.7 million was the pre-tax profit NAFCO booked for 2025, compared with a GH₵19.4 million loss the year before, said George Abradu-Otoo, who runs the state-backed National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), when he addressed its shareholders. He called it the largest profit the state-owned food company has made since it was set up. Mr Abradu-Otoo also warned that working capital remains a worry.

What we know

• NAFCO's chief executive, George Abradu-Otoo, said the company earned GH₵91.7 million before tax in 2025, swinging from a GH₵19.4 million loss in 2024, and described it as NAFCO's highest profit since its creation about 16 years ago.
• According to the company, gross profit margin climbed from 1.61% in 2024 to 13.96% in 2025, and return on operating assets moved from negative 63.80% to positive 26.29%.
• Mr Abradu-Otoo said NAFCO handed GH₵20.3 million to the State in taxes during 2025, which he described as the highest yearly tax payment in its history.
• He credited the turnaround to structural changes, among them a dedicated Procurement Department and stronger Internal Audit and Food Safety departments, plus a reconstituted Board of Directors and sub-committees.
• Mr Abradu-Otoo said NAFCO's liquidity is adequate but its acid-test ratio, a measure of its ability to meet short-term bills, remains marginal. He said the company wants that ratio above 1.5 and named working capital management as a key risk.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  MyJoyOnline put the acid-test ratio at 1.18 for 2025, up from 1.07 the year before. Citi Newsroom did not give these numbers.
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  Citi Newsroom reported that Mr Abradu-Otoo said all 16 regional offices now function after receiving vehicles, equipment and extra staff, and that government provided GH₵100 million at the start to relaunch the National Food Reserve Programme during 2025. Neither claim appears in other reports.
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  Citi Newsroom also reported Mr Abradu-Otoo as saying that by 31 December 2025 NAFCO had placed in storage 36,597 bags of maize, 21,287 of rice and 5,982 of gari, spread over depots in Tamale, Badu, Kumbungu, Dzodze, Wenchi and Kumasi. No other report carries the stock figures.
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  Osmond Amuah, NAFCO's Deputy Chief Executive Officer, said Ghana's warehouse space is below 50,000 metric tonnes against annual maize and rice consumption of more than six million metric tonnes, and urged government investment in storage. MyJoyOnline is the only report of these figures and this appeal.
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  Mr Amuah said NAFCO used its own internally generated funds to renovate stores, lifting usable space to roughly 50,000 metric tonnes from below 10,000 or 12,000, a claim reported by MyJoyOnline alone.
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  MyJoyOnline also reported that NAFCO supplies food to roughly 733 second-cycle schools under the Free Senior High School programme, without naming a source for the number.

Why it matters for Ghana

NAFCO buys and stores staple grains and is meant to hold stock for emergencies and to help when food is scarce or expensive, so its finances and warehouse space bear on food supply in Tamale, Kumasi and other towns. The company also supplies Free Senior High School institutions according to one report, which ties its cash position to school feeding. A profit on paper does not remove the pressure that its own management places on working capital and storage.