The Minority in Parliament has criticised the government’s 24-Hour Economy programme, saying it has failed to deliver on its promises and left many Ghanaians, especially the youth, without work.
Addressing the press on Friday, November 14, former Finance Minister Dr Amin Adams said: “The current administration secured the mandate of Ghanaians on the back of lofty pledges to transform the economic paradigm of our beloved nation, yet unfortunately those promises have not materialised.”
Dr Adams questioned the actual impact of the flagship initiative: “You remember the 24-Hour Economy, which the government launched this year. This program was said to be a job creation policy with a homegrown …, and they told us 133, one job 3 people, three shifts. But what has happened so far?”
He described the program as poorly planned: “Today the 24-Hour Economy policy is a confusing mix of policy ideas with no clear implementation arrangement.”
Highlighting the human cost of poor implementation, Dr Adams said: “The same youth who were told they will have shifts to work when this government comes to power, today they continue to roam the streets without work, whilst farmers and traders complain of poor sales due to weak demand.”
On the programme’s finances, Dr Adams stated: “The 24-Hour Economy programme is estimated to cost 4 billion US dollars, of which the government is expected to contribute between 300 to 400 million dollars.”
On the 2026 budget allocation, he added: “We are going into the second year since the program was launched, yet the government failed to announce in the 2026 budget the allocation of 90 million Ghana cedis to the 24-Hour Economy for 2026. In fact, the minister said 110 million Ghana cedis for 2026, but if you get to the appendix, you will see only 90 million Ghana cedis allocated towards 24-Hour Economy.”
Breaking down the spending further, Dr Adams said: “70 million of this is for goods and services, and 20 million of this is for CAPEX. This can best be described as tokenism, given that the programme is the main development blueprint of the NDC government.”
Summing up the program’s failure to meet its objectives, Dr Adams said: “This, no doubt, is helpless. This cannot help achieve the program objectives of creating a 133-job model.”
The Minority’s remarks underline growing frustration over the 24-Hour Economy, a flagship policy meant to stimulate economic activity and create employment, but which critics say remains largely unimplemented despite being two years old.
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