The 2025 annual report of Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) Plc, filed with the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and audited by KPMG, documents the most sweeping governance overhaul at Ghana’s state-owned agricultural lender in decades, with the institution recording the departure of its managing director, at least eight board members, and the installation of an entirely reconstituted board within a single financial year.
The corporate information section of the audited annual report, signed off on 26 March 2026, records the complete sequence of arrivals and departures that reshaped the bank’s leadership structure across twelve months.
The departures
The year’s governance upheaval began even before it started. In October 2024, the Bank of Ghana directed the then board chairman, Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II, to immediately resign following allegations of misconduct, with the central bank stating that his continued holding of office had become untenable due to irreparable damage to the bank’s image. That forced exit set the tone for the restructuring that followed under the new government that took office in January 2025.
The annual report’s corporate information page records that Acting Chairman George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah resigned on 22 July 2025. Independent Non-Executive Director Mrs. Mary Abla Kessie resigned on the same date. Independent Non-Executive Director Prof. Peter Quartey resigned on 18 July 2025. Independent Non-Executive Director Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah also resigned on 18 July 2025. Non-Executive Director Mr. Evron Rothschild Hughes resigned on 4 March 2025. Non-Executive Director Hon. Habib Iddrisu resigned on 22 July 2025. One additional director, Mr. Kenneth Kwamina Thompson, who had been listed on the earlier annual report, withdrew his consent to serve by a letter received on 8 November 2025.
The managing directorship also changed hands. Alhassan Yakubu-Tali formally resigned as Managing Director with effect from 5 February 2025, following the nomination of a new managing director by the bank’s majority shareholder, the Government of Ghana.
The new leadership
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson inaugurated a new board at a ceremony in Accra on 9 July 2025, with financial expert Kenneth Kwamina Thompson installed as chairman. The reconstituted board comprises Edward Ato Sarpong as managing director, alongside Hon. Andrew Dari Chiwitey, Siisi Essuman-Ocran, Hon. Dr. Ebenezer Prince Arhin, Hon. Misbahu Mahama Adams, Wing Commander Samuel J.A. Allotey, Courage Akanwunge Asabagna, and Abdul-Nasir Saani, all nominated on 9 July 2025.
At the inauguration, Forson charged the new board to stay true to the bank’s founding vision of driving Ghana’s agricultural transformation, and announced plans to recapitalise ADB in 2026.
Edward Ato Sarpong had been appointed managing director on 6 February 2025, one day after his predecessor’s resignation. The Bank of Ghana granted its regulatory approval for his appointment on 9 April 2025, the audited report confirms.
The governance gap this created
The full annual report contains an admission that has received no public attention. In the corporate governance section, under the heading Directors’ Performance Evaluation, the report states plainly that during the 2025 financial year, the board was unable to undertake its annual self-assessment or externally facilitated performance evaluation. The reason given is the reconstitution of the board, which resulted in significant changes to its composition. The evaluation has been deferred to the 2026 financial year, in line with regulatory expectations.
In other words, ADB ended 2025 with a board that has never been formally evaluated, managing a bank with a GH¢3.52 billion non-performing loan stock, a pending central bank NPL compliance deadline of December 2026, and a planned government recapitalisation whose terms have yet to be disclosed publicly. Forson assured the new board of plans to recapitalise ADB in 2026, aimed at strengthening the bank’s financial position to better support farmers, agribusinesses, and agricultural value chain initiatives.
The annual report was approved by the board on 26 March 2026 and signed on behalf of the directors by Independent Non-Executive Director Courage Akanwunge Asabagna and Managing Director Edward Ato Sarpong.
