VALCO Records Over $120m Revenue in 2025
The Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) generated revenue exceeding US$120 million as at December 2025, its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Robert Sambian, has disclosed.
Dr Sambian revealed the figures during a working visit by the Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, to the company’s Tema plant on February 26, 2026. VALCO currently employs about 800 workers.
The Minister engaged both management and the local workers’ union as part of efforts to assess operational conditions across state-owned enterprises.
“At this time, what are we doing with VALCO? How are their workers faring? And how are the safety conditions? These are key issues that directly affect our operations as a ministry,” Dr Pelpuo said. “We care about occupational hazard. We care about the functioning of the factory. We care about the need to expand. We care about what kind of support you want government to add on to you.”
According to him, government policy direction can either stimulate growth or contribute to contraction within state enterprises. He referenced an unnamed firm where employment levels reportedly declined from 2,000 to 1,200 workers following policy challenges.
Dr Pelpuo described VALCO as a strategic industrial asset which, with adequate state backing, could serve as a catalyst for broader economic expansion.
He situated the visit within the context of Ghana’s recent macroeconomic trajectory, stating that the country moved from tenth to eighth position among Africa’s largest economies within a year, attributing the shift to improved governance.
“When a nation is led by a person with good conscience and a good vision, we can make it. The old conception of being smart as a Ghanaian, which means being intelligent to cheat the nation, it stops,” he said.
The Minister criticised past financial management practices, citing instances of unaccounted public funds, including GH¢750 million borrowed for the Accra–Kumasi Road project, as well as US$82 billion reportedly expended on imports that did not materialise.
He further lamented the collapse of several state-owned enterprises established during the era of Kwame Nkrumah, including textile factories, iron and steel plants, a domestic automobile assembly venture, and the now-defunct Ghana Airways.
“You know that the textile companies, where are they? They used to employ a lot of people. Now we are trying to revive them. The iron and steel factories, they are gone. Do you know that there was a car company in Ghana producing cars? They are not surviving. Ghana Airways, it’s gone forever. Now we want to revive it,” he stated.
VALCO was established under President Nkrumah’s vision of building an integrated aluminium industry in Ghana. Construction commenced in 1964, with commercial production beginning in March 1967 at an initial annual capacity of 120,000 metric tonnes. Subsequent expansions in 1970 and 1974 increased installed capacity to 200,000 metric tonnes.
The project received initial capital and technical support from Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation. However, amid financial constraints in 2004, the company transferred full ownership to the Government of Ghana. Since 2011, operations have been scaled down, with output averaging approximately 40,000 metric tonnes per annum.
Dr Pelpuo indicated that the visit was intended to evaluate operational efficiency and determine the nature of state support required to enhance production and sustain employment.
