Ghana Publishing Company Limited (GPCL) recorded a profit after tax of GH¢16.9 million in 2025, an increase of more than 600 per cent from GH¢2.2 million the previous year.
Managing Director Nana Kwasi Boatey announced the figures at the Government Accountability Series at the Presidency in Accra on Monday, November 2. He also revealed that the state printer owed GH¢22 million in unpaid VAT and had asked the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to approve an instalment payment arrangement.
The 2025 result was GPCL’s strongest in recent years. Its previous best was GH¢2.7 million in 2023, while audited accounts published in May showed the company ended 2025 with GH¢18.77 million in cash, following three consecutive years of negative balances.
Revenue increased from about GH¢60 million in 2024 to approximately GH¢72 million in 2025. Nana Boatey attributed the rise to an increase in gazette publications, additional printing contracts and faster delivery.
Expenditure fell by about 8 per cent, from GH¢57 million to GH¢53 million, marking the first reduction since 2020. Administrative costs declined from GH¢11 million to GH¢7.1 million, with savings made on seminars and meetings, travel, board-related costs and staff motivation.
“Significant savings were achieved in travel, transport, and Board-related expenditure through better planning, increased use of virtual engagements, and prioritisation of essential activities,” Nana Boatey said.
He added that GPCL had performed even more strongly during the first ten months of 2026 and was on course to surpass its 2025 figures.
The company introduced a three-shift working pattern under the government’s 24-hour economy policy, partly to make better use of staff who had previously been underemployed. The shifts operate from 7am to 4.30pm, 10am to 7pm and 10pm to 4.30am.
As a result, the time required to produce a regular gazette has fallen from eight weeks to three. Premium gazettes now take three days instead of one week, while a new 24-hour service allows applicants to have a gazette published in less than a day.
Nana Boatey said overnight operations had also helped GPCL secure urgent government work, including the printing of the Budget and the President’s State of the Nation Address. During a visit in January, President John Dramani Mahama said the company would receive major textbook contracts.
GPCL has created legal, corporate affairs, commercial sales, quality control and senior administration departments, and established its first entity tender committee under the Public Procurement Act. CBG Bank now collects and banks all sales made at the company’s business centre.
In October, GPCL launched a gazette verification platform and an e-bookshop to address counterfeit gazettes and illegal copies of the Acts of Ghana. A Digital Press Centre, the company’s first, is also being established with support from President John Dramani Mahama and sector minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu.
Nana Boatey said the VAT liability showed GPCL was “still not completely out of the woods”, as the debt exceeded its entire 2025 profit. Management became aware of the arrears about a month ago after receiving a letter from the GRA. No VAT was paid in 2020 or 2024, while only partial payments were made in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
GPCL has requested an instalment plan. Nana Boatey said he hoped the GRA would “be merciful” and allow the company to pay “in bits”, while tighter financial controls were introduced to prevent further arrears.
The recovery has also become politically contested. Former Chief Executive David Asante said in January that the turnaround occurred between 2017 and 2024 under the NPP government, rather than during the current administration’s first months. He cited audited accounts showing profits from 2019 to 2024, while Nana Boatey’s figures identify GH¢2.7 million in 2023 as the strongest result during those years.
