Amid the general support the 24-Hour Economy initiative has received, the Centre for Policy Scrutiny (CPS) is raising a critical red flag over the ambitious programme, insisting its institutional and policy alignment within Ghana’s Medium-Term Development Framework remains unclear.
The CPS agrees that the initiative is very comprehensive and correctly diagnoses Ghana’s economic challenges. It adds that impressive vision has the potential to transform the economy, but all is not that rosy.
According to CPS, the 24-Hour Economy Plus (24H+) programme does not currently sit within the country’s formal planning structure led by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The NDPC is a body legally mandated to design and coordinate national development plans.
Speaking at an event to review the policy based on the works of CPS in Accra, the Executive Director of the Centre, Dr. Adu Owusu Sarkodie, argued that programmes of this nature are ideally prepared by the NDPC and integrated into the National Development Plan. It then cascades into district and sectoral plans.
In the economist’s estimation, the 24-Hour Economy fails to meet this conventional threshold. Without this integration, he warned, the 24H+ risks suffering from weak coordination, poor budget alignment, and limited implementation success, including duplication.
“The position of the 24-H plus in Ghana’s medium-term development framework is unclear,” the economist remarked.
He continued, “Programmes outside of anything led by the NDPC may potentially be duplicative. Suffer weak linkages with the fiscal programme, dimming implementation prospects. This disconnect represents a primary challenge of the 24-Hour Economy programme.”
To buttress this argument, CPS cited policy overlaps in the agricultural sector as a clear example of this institutional misalignment. The economist explained that the government is already implementing initiatives like Feed Ghana, and now there’s Grow24 under the 24-Hour Economy framework. This, he says, raises critical questions.
“A good illustration is the policy overlap in the agricultural sector. We’ve seen policy overlap in some sectors, but let’s take the agricultural sector as an example. We have Grow24, and the 24-Hour Economy programme has not been implemented yet. It’s been launched. But the Feed Ghana is ongoing,” he indicated.
“One would ask the following questions. Feed Ghana, Grow24; Which of these two programmes is the government’s principal agricultural transformation intervention? Would both programmes be implemented simultaneously, despite their overlapping mandates? Which programme will be prioritised in alignment with the fiscal framework that governs resource allocation?” he quizzed.
The CPS insists that unless the 24-Hour Economy is properly anchored within Ghana’s medium-term planning system, ensuring coherence between national priorities, sectoral plans, and the national budget, the programme’s promise could be missed.
