By Edward Dankwah
Accra, July 14, GNA – Mr. Stephane Miezan, the President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), has said the government’s 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme has the potential to transform Ghana’s economy if it is effectively implemented.
He said the initiative goes beyond continuous production and round-the-clock markets, providing a strategic framework for industrialisation, value addition, export growth and sustainable job creation.
The President of GNCCI was speaking at the CEOs Business Forum on the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development in Accra, organised by the Chamber.
The forum brought together business leaders, policymakers, and financial sector stakeholders to discuss how Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy agenda could accelerate industrial growth, boost exports, strengthen private sector competitiveness, and unlock new investment opportunities.
Mr. Miezan said the programme’s success would depend more on effective implementation than policy design, noting that Ghana had introduced several promising policies in the past whose impact was limited by weak implementation, including the One District One Factory initiative.
He said the Chamber, as the voice of the private sector, was committed to working with government and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation and long-term sustainability of the programme, irrespective of changes in political administration.
He called for the initiative to be institutionalised as a long-term national development agenda anchored within the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and backed by constitutional provisions to ensure policy continuity, consistency and investor confidence.
The GNCCI President also urged the government to establish a robust monitoring and evaluation framework, supported by annual public reporting, to track implementation and ensure accountability.
He expressed concern over rising electricity tariffs, stating that the cumulative increase in power costs had significantly raised production expenses and undermined the competitiveness of local manufacturers, calling for targeted energy cost relief for manufacturers to support increased production.
Mr. Miezan recommended that the government facilitate businesses’ access to modern machinery, production equipment and technology instead of direct cash grants, while prioritising value-added export products such as cocoa derivatives, shea products, and others to maximise opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He appealed to the government to strengthen export market access through trade missions, business matchmaking, export promotion activities and market intelligence to enable Ghanaian businesses to compete effectively in international markets.
Mr. Abdul-Nasser Alidu, the Chief Programme Officer, 24-Hour Secretariat, said the success of the 24-Hour Economy Programme would depend largely on active private sector participation and investment.
He said the initiative was fundamentally a private sector-focused programme designed to leverage private capital to transform Ghana’s economy, improve productivity and enhance the competitiveness of local businesses.
Mr. Alidu explained that the 24-Hour Economy Programme represented the micro-level component of the government’s broader macroeconomic transformation agenda, which included efforts to stabilise the economy and reduce the cost of borrowing.
He noted that with inflation declining and lending rates reducing significantly, the next priority was to ensure that businesses have access to long-term financing, and that available funding was channeled into productive sectors of the economy.
The Chief Programmes Officer said the Secretariat was working on introducing credit enhancement mechanisms, including a credit guarantee scheme, to enable businesses to access loans without the traditional requirement of heavy collateral.
He stressed that the programme would not operate as a government-funded initiative where public resources were simply distributed to selected businesses, rather through a commercially driven model where financial institutions assess and manage risks.
“Private sector focus means the private sector must front-faceand take the credit risk. That is the only way this country can develop,” he added.
Mr. Alidu said allowing banks and private financial institutions to make lending decisions would ensure that investments were commercially viable, improveaccountability and increase the likelihood of repayment.
He said the Secretariat was engaging the pension industry to explore ways of unlocking long-term domestic capital for private sector development, noting that Ghana’s pension industry manages significant funds that could support productive investments.
Mr. Alidu mentioned partnerships with development finance institutions, including the approval of a $280 million facility by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for onward lending to the private sector through participating financial institutions.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
