The 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development (24H+) Secretariat has rejected claims that the programme is being financed from the government’s broader GH¢650 billion budget allocation, saying the initiative relies largely on private-sector investment rather than direct public expenditure.
The clarification follows comments by the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who questioned the resources committed to the 24-Hour Economy programme and what it had delivered since its launch.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Secretariat said the GH¢650 billion figure cited in the parliamentary discussion represented the total amount appropriated by Parliament for all government programmes over the past two years and was “by no means the expenditure made by or on the 24-Hour Economy.”
“The GHS 650 billion cited by Hon. Oppong Nkrumah is the total that Parliament has appropriated for all government programmes over the past two years, as the Honourable Member himself indicated,” the Secretariat said.
It said the financing structure of the programme is set out under the 24-Hour Economy Authority Act, 2026 (Act 1164), with most projects expected to be funded by Ghanaian and foreign private investors, companies and cooperatives.
“Almost all of the projects are funded by private investors: Ghanaian and foreign companies and cooperatives,” the Secretariat said.
According to the Secretariat, government funding will mainly support project preparation, viability gap financing for projects that require assistance to become bankable, and seed funding for the coordination work of the Secretariat.
The clarification comes as the government seeks to justify progress under the flagship economic programme, which it says is designed to increase production, boost exports and create jobs.
The Secretariat said it had secured US$5.5 billion worth of Joint Development Agreements with co-development partners as of May this year, within a wider project pipeline valued at US$11.5 billion.
It added that the programme is targeting 1.7 million decent jobs by the end of 2028, while four agreements signed within the past 90 days have combined job creation targets of more than 160,000 direct jobs.
The Secretariat said the appropriate measure of success for the programme was not government spending but the investment mobilised and the economic activity generated.
“The right measure is the investment the Programme mobilises and the production, exports and jobs it generates,” it said.
The programme has faced scrutiny over its implementation timeline, with critics questioning its financial commitments and tangible outcomes. The Secretariat said the gradual rollout was deliberate to ensure investors, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, were prepared and that key requirements such as land availability, electricity supply and project viability were addressed.
It said evidence of the programme’s implementation would increasingly be seen through expanded factory operations, 24-hour services and new investment projects across the country.
