The Volta Region will serve as the launching pad for Ghana’s 24-hour economy initiative, with plans to attract over $1 billion in investments and create one million jobs across multiple sectors, Deputy Chief of Staff Nana Oye Bampoe Addo announced at the Volta Economic Forum.
Speaking on behalf of Chief of Staff Julius Debrah at the maiden forum held at Reddington Beach Resort in Keta on Thursday, Bampoe Addo described the Volta Economic Corridor as a land of natural wealth and power that occupies a central part of President John Dramani Mahama’s economic reset agenda.
The corridor, spanning more than two million hectares, is expected to serve as a logistics and production backbone to accelerate north-south integration and establish Ghana as a regional trade hub. This isn’t just regional development rhetoric. The government has already completed a development blueprint for the Volta River Basin in July 2025 to guide the establishment of industrial parks, economic enclaves, and inland water transport systems.
Bampoe Addo outlined an ambitious vision for transforming Lake Volta and its surrounding areas into a multimodal corridor that will link production zones to ports and regional markets. The strategic location matters because it provides Ghana with direct access to landlocked Sahelian countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, potentially positioning the country as a critical gateway for West African trade.
The Deputy Chief of Staff emphasized four strategic sectors where the corridor will create the most value: agriculture, energy, logistics, and tourism. In agriculture, the Volta Basin’s fertile plains offer potential for integrated agro-processing parks, cold-chain facilities, and value-chain industrialization. These facilities would operate around the clock, minimizing post-harvest losses and improving export readiness.
Ghana’s food import bill currently exceeds $3 billion annually, a staggering figure for a country with abundant arable land. Charles Nornoo, Agriculture Lead at the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat, identified the Anloga area as a potential site for tomato processing factories. He emphasized branding Volta produce as premium food since the region remains untainted by illegal mining, a selling point that could differentiate Volta products in both domestic and international markets.
The energy component centers on Lake Volta and the Akosombo Hydropower Station, which Bampoe Addo described as strategic national assets. The government aims to attract investors into hybrid solar-hydro projects that can operate continuously to stabilize power supply for industries along the corridor. This matters because reliable electricity has been one of Ghana’s persistent challenges, and combining solar with existing hydropower capacity could finally deliver the 24/7 power that industries need.
On logistics, the plan involves transforming Volta Lake into a continuous multimodal corridor that would reduce inland transportation costs and shorten delivery times for goods destined for export markets. Currently, most cargo travels by road, which is expensive and slow. Developing inland water transport could dramatically lower logistics costs, making Ghanaian exports more competitive.
Tourism represents another critical component. The Volta Region’s natural landscapes and cultural heritage, supported by round-the-clock logistics and energy networks, could enable a modern hospitality industry centered on lake cruises, eco-tourism, and heritage experiences. When logistics and energy are supplied continuously, Bampoe Addo argued, a dependable economy emerges that attracts foreign investment through tourism.
The 24-Hour Economy Plus concept has begun drawing international attention. It featured prominently at the Africa-Singapore Business Forum in August 2025, where President Mahama outlined how extended-hour operations can boost exports and job creation. The United Kingdom’s Jobs and Economic Transformation Programme has aligned its support to Ghana’s 24-hour policy pillar, suggesting international partners view the initiative as credible rather than just political messaging.
The African Development Bank signed a landmark Letter of Intent with Ghana in July 2025 to support development of the Volta Economic Corridor. The agreement, signed in partnership with the 24H+ Secretariat and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, sets the stage for repositioning Lake Volta as a multimodal transport spine for agricultural and industrial expansion.
Under this agreement, the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund will establish three Special Purpose Vehicles to drive investment across critical domains: inland water transport and port infrastructure, agro-ecological parks and irrigation systems, and lakeside industrial parks and logistics zones. The African Development Bank will explore co-financing options for key infrastructure components while helping to mobilize additional funding from other development partners and private lenders.
Bampoe Addo cited the Volta Corridor Centre, the Volta Economic Embassy, and the Keta port project as examples of flagship initiatives already catalyzing investments and coordinating the region’s marketing potential. However, she provided limited details on the current status of these projects or how much investment they’ve actually attracted so far.
Volta Regional Minister James Gunu described the forum as a turning point for resetting Ghana’s economy through local development and job creation. He encouraged districts to identify unique potentials in tourism, agriculture, and aquaculture to drive transformation. Drawing comparisons with Switzerland, he suggested the Volta Region could maximize its rivers, lakes, and mountains for tourism, aquaculture, irrigation, and transport.
Ghana EXIM Bank CEO Sylvester Adinam Mensah outlined several areas of potential including agriculture and agro-processing, cross-border trade and logistics, industrial parks and manufacturing, tourism and blue economy, and renewable energy. He said EXIM Bank stands ready to partner with municipal and district chief executives and the private sector by financing agro-based industries, supporting an apparel industrial park in the region, and investing in trade-enabling infrastructure like warehouses and cold-storage facilities.
The Volta Economic Corridor should not remain an abstract concept, Mensah emphasized. It must translate into rice mills in Hohoe and Afife, cassava processing plants in Adaklu, logistics hubs in Aflao, beach resorts in Tegbi, and renewable energy farms across the region. This practical framing matters because previous development initiatives have often remained at the level of policy documents without translating into actual infrastructure and jobs.
Dr. Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor, Volta Representative on the National Development Planning Commission and forum coordinator, explained that preparing municipal and district chief executives to effectively engage with investors ahead of the forum was crucial. Politics differs from business, he noted, and local leaders need skills to collaborate with the private sector, promote investment, and negotiate bankable projects for their districts.
All 18 municipal and district chief executives in the Volta Region participated in preparatory retreats held in October, pledging to apply knowledge gained to attract investment and harness economic potential in their respective districts. This capacity building matters because previous investment forums have sometimes failed due to local officials lacking the technical knowledge to structure viable proposals for private investors.
The forum featured participation from government officials, development partners, traditional authorities, captains of industry, and international investors, signaling what organizers describe as a new phase of collaborative economic planning. The diplomatic corps also attended, suggesting Ghana is positioning the corridor as internationally significant rather than just a domestic development project.
Bampoe Addo described the Volta Economic Corridor as a living testament to what can happen when vision meets collaboration. She urged participants to use the forum as a platform for bold, honest dialogue and practical recommendations to make the 24-hour economy a national success story.
Through this corridor, she said, Ghana can build value chains that work continuously, expand access to energy, create jobs for youth, and open new frontiers of trade that link Ghana to neighbors and the world at large. Whether this vision translates into actual transformation depends entirely on execution, something Ghana has historically struggled with despite ambitious plans.
The government views the project as a model of public-private partnership that will link state agencies, investors, and local communities in driving sustainable growth. However, past public-private partnership initiatives in Ghana have faced challenges including unclear risk allocation, delayed government approvals, and disputes over contract terms. Success requires not just signing agreements but following through on commitments.
The forum forms part of the government’s broader plan to transform the Volta Basin into a strategic economic growth corridor within Ghana’s 24-hour economy framework. President Mahama has made the 24-hour economy a centerpiece of his administration’s economic policy, arguing that Ghana must maximize utilization of existing infrastructure and resources by extending operating hours across key sectors.
Critics have questioned whether the concept is merely rebranding existing shift work or represents genuine structural transformation. Supporters argue it signals a comprehensive approach to boosting productivity, improving export competitiveness, and attracting private investment through strategic public-private partnerships.
The Volta Region’s strategic coastal location, skilled workforce, and expanding infrastructure base make it a prime destination for investment and industrial growth, according to stakeholders. However, the region has historically lagged behind Ashanti and Greater Accra in attracting major investments, partly due to infrastructure gaps and political marginalization under previous administrations.
What makes this initiative potentially different is the combination of political will at the highest levels, international partner support through institutions like the African Development Bank, and concrete infrastructure plans rather than just policy statements. Still, Ghana’s development history is littered with ambitious regional development schemes that failed to materialize.
The forum’s success will ultimately be measured not by attendance or speeches but by actual investment commitments, construction of promised infrastructure, and creation of jobs for Volta residents. Bampoe Addo’s call for bold thinking and practical solutions acknowledges this reality. The next phase requires translating vision into bankable projects that investors will actually fund and communities will genuinely benefit from.
For now, the Volta Region has been formally declared open for business, with government promising coordinated policy frameworks that align public and private sector priorities for inclusive and sustainable regional development. Whether this declaration leads to genuine transformation or joins the list of unrealized development promises will become clear over the coming years as projects either materialize or fade into memory.
