The Presidential Advisor for the government’s flagship 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development programme, Augustus Goosie Tanoh, has advocated that Ghana’s business community become the key drivers of the initiative for economic transformation.
Declaring the programme had entered its execution phase, Mr Tanoh noted that the success of the initiative would depend largely on the private sector’s willingness to invest, produce, and export at scale.
Speaking at the 10th Ghana CEO Summit in Accra, on the theme: “Activating Ghana’s Economic Transformation,” he indicated that converting the initiative into tangible economic outcomes required private sector participation.
“This is our challenge to you. Do not see the 24-hour economy initiative as something that the Government is doing for you. Treat it as something we are doing together because it cannot succeed any other way,” Mr Tanoh said.
“What we need is alignment and execution. Alignment between policy and production, between finance and industry, between infrastructure and exports, between government and enterprise.” He explained that the flagship programme was the government’s deliberate effort towards reversing the decades of Ghana exporting her raw materials, to processing for the retention of value at home and creating jobs, especially for the youth.
The Presidential Advisor outlined three 24-hour economy pillars: boosting productivity across key value chains, improving product circulation via marketing and supply chains, and upgrading skills and mindsets for better, more productive workers and citizens.
He also outlined the eight integrated sub-programmes, describing the theme as investment avenues – Grow-24, Make-24, Show-24, Build-24, Connect-24, Fund24, Aspire-24 and Go-24, all designed to ensure that the private sector thrived beyond electoral cycles.
On market opportunities, Mr Tanoh pointed to the convergence of three historic openings available to Ghanaian exporters – the 400-million-strong West African market, the AfCFTA’s 1.4 billion African consumer base with duty-free access, and China’s newly announced zero-tariff access for African goods.
He urged CEOs to think beyond Ghana to Lagos, Abidjan, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Beijing, and not wait to see if it would work, saying, “the countries that will prosper in this century are not those that consume the future but those that will produce that future.”
He pledged the government’s resolve to providing favourable policy measures, facilitating, coordinating, incentivising, and regulating the implementation of the initiative to ensure its success.
Among others, he said the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat and its partners would work to secure lands, install power, deliver water, lobby for legal reform and mobilise capital and develop incentives and exemptions for participating companies.
“If we, as Ghanaian exporters, are strategic and consistent, there is more than enough room to thrive and increase,” he assured, adding that the government would help to build brands of international repute.
Mr Tanoh reiterated the importance of the 24-hour economy programme to clear the way of the obstacles that had frustrated exporters in the past, including issues with customs, airports, seaports, and border posts.
“You are the creators of an economy, and you are the ones who ultimately will benefit from the profits arising from you and them. So, I ask three things of you – engage with us early, think bigger, and invest in this transformation as partners with your own capital,” he encouraged.
