Parliament has passed the 24-hour Economy Authority Bill, 2025 into an Act subject to Presidential assent.
The object of the Bill is for establish the 24-Hour Economy Authority to ensure the integrated, sustainable transformation of national systems for economic production, supply chain, marketing and labour power development and to provide for related matters.
The 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme is a national economic transformation strategy aimed at enhancing productivity, promoting inclusive growth, and establishing a coherent and consistent framework for long-term national development with bipartisan support.
The Programme represents a deliberate government intervention designed to address persistent structural weaknesses within the country’s production economy and to reposition Ghana on a sustainable growth trajectory.
Ghana’s current economic structure is characterized by a heavy reliance on imports and a disproportionate expansion of the service sector relative to the productive sectors of agriculture and manufacturing. National GDP data indicate that economic growth has been driven largely by services, rather than by direct production. This imbalance is unsustainable, as productive and service sectors must grow in tandem to support a resilient economy.
The Programme seeks to reverse this trend by reducing the country’s dependence on the export of low-value raw materials and on the importation of expensive finished and intermediate goods. Its objective is to strengthen domestic value addition, enhance competitiveness, and accelerate export development in order to make the national economy more self-reliant.
While the country has made notable progress in improving productivity in certain areas, it continues to lag in the development of critical skills particularly digital and technological competencies required by modern economies.
The memorandum accompanying the Bill said, “the Programme adopts a holistic, value-chain-based approach, addressing challenges across multiple sectors through coordinated, multi-sectoral interventions at both policy and operational levels. It further emphasizes national mobilization of institutions and communities to drive broad-based economic transformation”.
Currently administered by a Secretariat within the Office of the President, the Programme requires statutory backing to ensure effective implementation and sustainability.
Accordingly, the Bill provides for the establishment of the 24-Hour Economy Authority and sets out the institutional and structural framework necessary to address longstanding structural challenges within the economy. It further provides strategic direction for accelerated export development, with the overarching aim of reducing import dependence and strengthening Ghana’s economic resilience.
