Ghana’s ambition to roll out a competitive 24-Hour Economy risks being undermined by weak operational efficiency, despite strong regulations and public-sector frameworks, Presidential Advisor on the policy, Goosie Tanoh, has acknowledged.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a World Bank B-READY working session in Accra, Goosie Tanoh admitted that early findings from the assessment expose a hard truth policymakers must confront. However, he warned that the country’s regulatory and public service strengths are being undercut by inefficiencies in how systems operate in practice.
“Well, we just got the report, so we have to study it. But I think the initial reaction is that if you look at the three pillars that they use, the regulatory framework, public service, and also operational efficiency, clearly Ghana is doing well at the regulatory and public service segment. We’re not doing so well in operational efficiency, and that’s something that we have to improve on,” he said.
The World Bank assessment highlights trade facilitation as one of the clearest pain points, a concern Goosie Tanoh did not downplay. He pointed to port clearance timelines that leave Ghana trailing behind regional competitors.
According to Tanoh, addressing these gaps is not about weakening regulations but about making the public service work more effectively for productive businesses. He also argued that poor operational outcomes reflect capacity challenges within the private sector itself.
“If you are going to make it a true engine of development, then the public service has to be responsive to that private sector, make things a bit easier, even as they enforce the requirements of the regulations.
“If we’re not doing too well, it means that we need to do a lot more to get the private sector more savvy, able to meet the compliance requirements of the regulation,” he explained.
Beyond bureaucracy and border delays, Tanoh outlined how the 24-Hour Economy policy plans to tackle one of the biggest structural constraints facing the industry in energy costs.
Under the policy, industrial parks, agro-ecological parks, and facilities along the Volta Economic Corridor will benefit from cheaper power through special-purpose vehicles managing energy supply.
“The park SPV that deals with energy will offtake at a price of not more than seven cents per kilowatt hour. And where possible, even four cents per kilowatt hour.
“So that we create an environment where energy costs don’t become a bottleneck and it’s incentive for people to invest in Ghana. It’s not a scorecard, but it gives us some basis, a baseline to see where we are and how we can improve,” he said.
Ultimately, Tanoh emphasised that the success of the 24-Hour Economy will be measured not by policy documents but by tangible outcomes in job creation. “At the end of the day, we want to generate jobs for young people who are teeming and entering the workforce in large numbers,” he concluded.
