The National Democratic Congress (NDC), launches a bold initiative to transform Ghana into a 24-hour economy, with a comprehensive plan to improve business and provide employment for citizens in the country.
Businesses, industries, and institutions would extend their working hours and operate around the clock 24/7. In order to boost the productivity of the country’s economy, creating jobs, improving public services, creating revenue for the country, improving exports and imports services, security, and the energy sectors.
“Three shifts, three people, One job, three shifts, three people. Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions for extraordinary results. And so businesses and public organizations will be encouraged to operate 24-7, in three shifts of eight hours each.”
“This will boost production, it will increase employment, and provide well-paying jobs. It will transform Ghana into an import-substitution and export-led country. It will increase employment opportunities and revenue.”
“And it will enhance access to public services. We will focus on some selected public institutions that have huge customer traffic. For instance, the ports and harbors should be open 24/7”, the Flagbearer of the NDC John Mahama stated.
To achieve this 24-hour economy, there is the need to employ more personnel for it to be possible. John Mahama emphasized. “That means we have to employ more workers at the ports, we have to employ more customs officers, more forklift operators and all that. We need customs. Customs should work 24-7, three shifts, so that at any time your items come, customs at any time of the day is open for business.”
He continued: “You can go and process your import things, papers, and take your things out of the ports. We must have a passport office that is operating longer than eight hours so that people who need passports and other site documentation can have access to it. We must have a DVLA that is working more shifts than one shift so that more people can get their licenses processed in a shorter time than the current waiting time.”
Former President Mahama also stated sectors to run 24/7 to ensure the growth and development of revenue for the country.
“The sectors that we are looking to promote and encourage to run 24-7 and three shifts are the agro-processing sector. That is those who process our cassava into cassava starch, cassava flour, garlic, and all that. There’s a huge market in Africa for all these products and in the other parts of the world.”
He continued: “Manufacturing, that is industry. The textile industry, the fruit and juice industry, all the industries, the iron and steel industry, will be encouraged to run 24-7. In the pharmaceutical sector, we want Ghana to be the pharmaceutical hub of the whole of Africa, so that we produce medicines here and export them to all other African countries.”
“Construction sector, we want Ghana to be the pharmaceutical hub of the whole of Africa, We want our construction companies to work 24-7 all year, all hours round, so that they can deliver our infrastructure faster than they currently do. Financial services are the same. Sanitation and garbage collection.”
The NDC flag bearer further indicated a few sectors and services that can operate at night that will improve the livelihood of the citizens in the country.
“It is better to collect garbage, in the night, rather than collect the bollard and be competing with cars in the daytime when we have rush hour traffic. Extractive industries, the mines, mining bauxite, mining gold, mining manganese, and lithium, three shifts every day. Hospitality industry, our restaurants, our discotheques, our nightclubs, our hotels.”
He continued: “Retail centers, all the malls, there’s no reason why you should sit. People can come in the night-time and buy items, so they should work longer than 8 hours. Transportation services, there should be buses running 24 hours, so that people who have to go to their jobs can be able to get a bus to go to their jobs.”
“Security services, we need safety and security to be able to implement a 24-hour economy. And so we need more police officers, we need more soldiers, we need more prison officers, more fire service officers, more customs, more immigration. The project for 24-hour security is to stimulate demand for 24-hour economic goods and services. This will be supported by strategic investments in infrastructure, security, in energy. We’ll have public and private security architecture and cheaper and more reliable electricity. That is a type of use time.”
Mr. Mahama emphasized the need to have more security personnel to ensure the safety of citizens.
The NDC Flagbearer stated his administration will introduce tax incentives that would make the 24-hour economy possible and ensure better conservation of energy.
“So in the night when we’re not using much of the power and it’s going to waste, we can supply it to the 24-hour economy at cheaper rates than we currently charge. Tax incentives to companies that will sign up for the 24-hour economy, we’ll be giving tax incentives so they pay lower taxes, they can reinvest what they have saved back into increasing their production. We’ll give them support from the Ghana Ex-Im Bank, especially for the agro-processing and manufacturing sectors that are going to be exported.”
The former President pledged to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with catalytic investments to boost their capacity and generate jobs. And he will personally see to it, to ensure its smooth developments.
“We’ll support SMEs operating capacity with catalytic investments to upgrade and generate jobs. The Accelerated Exports Development Council, I’m going to chair that personally. We want to accelerate our exports.”
“We’re going to register more Ghanaian goods on the African Continental Free Trade Area so that we can export to other countries. And I’m going to chair that personally. And we’ll meet every month and appraise where we are at in terms of encouraging Ghanaian businesses to export.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Nukpeta Yaa Dorcas
