The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) recorded a GH¢70 million surplus in 2025, up 51 per cent from GH¢46 million the previous year, but has identified ageing laboratory equipment and illicit products as key challenges to public health protection.
The Deputy Director of Finance at the FDA, Samuel Adom-Siaw, disclosed this at the Authority's 2025 Annual Stakeholders' Meeting in Accra while presenting its audited financial report.
He said the Authority's total assets increased from GH¢296 million in 2024 to GH¢358 million in 2025, while liabilities declined from GH¢12 million to GH¢3.4 million.
Total revenue stood at GH¢420 million, comprising GH¢278 million in internally generated funds (IGF), GH¢78 million in donor inflows and GH¢63 million in government subsidies. IGF accounted for 66 per cent of total revenue, with donor support contributing 19 per cent and government subsidies 15 per cent.
Adom-Siaw said expenditure increased marginally from GH¢266 million in 2024 to GH¢267 million in 2025 despite higher staff compensation and increased operational demands. The Authority, however, recorded a GH¢95 million shortfall against its projected IGF target of GH¢374 million, largely due to exchange rate movements. He said the FDA would continue to manage expenditure prudently, strengthen revenue mobilisation and periodically review its fee structure in consultation with stakeholders.
On operations, FDA Quality Assurance Manager Joseph Ofosu-Siaw said the Authority received 24,446 product applications in 2025 and processed 24,225, resulting in 20,205 approvals. Facility inspections reached 15,457, while 47,189 consignments were inspected at the ports, a 21.7 per cent increase over 2024. The FDA conducted 2,250 market surveillance exercises, visited 24,755 retail outlets, and retrieved 215,876 non-compliant products during the year.
Ofosu-Siaw said 62 per cent of regulated products registered in 2025 were locally produced, compared with 33 per cent in 2024. The Authority also trained 8,693 street food vendors and issued 1,369 permits under its street food safety programme.
However, he said laboratory capacity remained a concern, with some equipment between eight and 20 years old and increasingly difficult to maintain, particularly in laboratories operating around the clock. The FDA received 7,551 samples for laboratory testing in 2025, a 76 per cent increase over 2024, but achieved only 77 per cent testing coverage against its 85 per cent target. He appealed to stakeholders and development partners to support the Authority with modern laboratory equipment to strengthen its testing capacity.
The FDA also intensified enforcement against regulatory breaches. The Director of Legal Services, Perpetual Vicentia Yankson, said the Authority issued about 80 warnings and 233 administrative fines in 2025, covering violations including unapproved advertisements, sale of unregistered products, pharmaceutical recalls, unlicensed cold storage facilities and illicit tobacco activities. She reminded businesses that advertisements for regulated products require prior FDA approval and cautioned against manufacturing, importing, distributing or selling regulated products without registration.
Management said it would intensify intelligence-led enforcement and risk-based surveillance while strengthening collaboration with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority and other institutions to tackle illicit imports and unregistered products. The FDA said its public education campaigns reached more than 12 million people in 2025, focusing on tobacco use, drug safety and food safety.
