The 24-Hour Economy Secretariat says the Government’s flagship programme is not primarily about forcing companies, shops and businesses to operate around the clock, but about transforming the structure of Ghana’s economy.
Mr Abdul-Nasser Alidu Suglo, Chief Programme Officer at the Secretariat, said the programme was designed to expand production, promote industrialisation, increase exports, create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on imported goods.
He said the ultimate objective was to build sufficient productive capacity and demand for businesses to operate in shifts, including during extended hours, rather than making 24-hour operations an end in themselves.
Mr Suglo made the remarks at the 24-Hour Economy Media Engagement.
He said the programme should be understood as a broader economic transformation strategy aimed at creating an economy capable of producing more goods and services, adding value to raw materials and competing effectively in international markets.
“The 24-Hour Economy is both a destination and a mission,” he said.
Mr Suglo explained that as industrial and productive capacity expanded, businesses would increasingly need to operate in shifts to meet rising demand.
That, he said, would be an outcome of a stronger economy rather than the central purpose of the programme.
He said industrialisation would enable Ghana to process more of its raw materials locally and produce goods currently imported, while export promotion would help local businesses become competitive both domestically and internationally.
Mr Suglo said increased domestic production and exports would generate the foreign exchange required to import machinery, technology and intermediate goods needed to expand productive capacity.
He said Ghana’s economic structure remained vulnerable because about 80 per cent of the country’s exports were concentrated in three commodities, gold, cocoa and oil.
At the same time, he said, the country remained heavily dependent on imports, including food products.
Ghana spent about GH¢39 billion on food imports in 2024, he said, with several major imports being consumption goods rather than inputs that could support domestic production.
The 24-Hour Economy, therefore, seeks to shift the economy from predominantly consuming imported goods to producing more of what the country consumes and exporting value-added products.
Mr Suglo said another major concern was the economy’s limited ability to translate growth into employment.
He said employment elasticity of output was currently estimated at about 0.29 percent, meaning that a 10 percent expansion in economic output generated only about a three per cent increase in employment.
“This means for every 10 percent growth in the economy, you are only seeing jobs grow by about three percent,” he said.
He described the situation as inefficient and said the new economic model was intended to make growth more productive and employment-intensive.
Mr Suglo said Ghana’s dependence on primary commodities also exposed the economy to external shocks and limited opportunities for wealth creation.
He said the country needed to move beyond exporting raw materials and develop industries capable of processing those resources into higher-value products.
The strategy, he said, would help expand local production, strengthen businesses, create sustainable employment and generate foreign exchange.
He said the central question of the 24-Hour Economy was therefore not whether every business should remain open for 24 hours, but whether Ghana could build an economy with enough productive capacity, markets and demand to justify businesses operating in shifts.
