New Patriotic Party (NPP) communicator Nana Adjei has turned the government’s flagship 24 Hour Economy policy back on itself, questioning why the coordinating body responsible for the initiative operates on a standard daytime schedule rather than demonstrating by example what round the clock productivity means.
Speaking on Angel FM in Kumasi, Adjei argued the contradiction at the centre of the policy is visible to anyone paying attention. The body tasked with driving an economy that never sleeps, he said, opens at eight in the morning and closes at five in the afternoon.
“They promised Ghanaians this and they have still not delivered,” he said.
His critique arrives at a specific moment in the policy’s rollout. The government has compiled a documented implementation record since the 24 Hour Economy launched nationally in July 2025. President John Dramani Mahama signed the 24 Hour Economy Authority Bill into law in February 2026, giving the programme statutory footing and replacing the original secretariat with a formal authority. Parliament passed the enabling legislation. The government committed GH¢110 million to operationalise the authority. The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) launched a downstream petroleum pilot this week, bringing 268 fuel stations across four regions into the programme. Tema and Takoradi ports now run operations around the clock. The authority has set a target of 200,000 jobs in 2026 as its first measurable milestone.
Adjei did not engage those specific developments. His argument operates on a different register. The original campaign commitment, he contended, was not about legislative architecture or sector pilots but about a visible, experienced transformation in the conditions of ordinary economic life. On that standard, he said 16 months into the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, the picture remains unchanged for most Ghanaians.
He questioned the status of other pledges the NDC made before taking office, including a women’s branch structure the party had committed to establishing. He also claimed that frustration was spreading among the ruling party’s own grassroots base as job expectations went unmet and economic conditions failed to improve at the pace supporters had anticipated.
These wider claims carry less precision than the specific secretariat hours allegation. The government projects that the 24 Hour Authority will generate 1.7 million jobs across a four year period, with the 2026 interim target of 200,000 positions representing the first test of that projection. Whether those numbers materialise will carry more weight with voters than any single piece of legislation.
The office hours allegation is the most concrete and publicly verifiable element of Adjei’s criticism. It functions as a symbol rather than an audit. But symbols carry political weight, particularly when a policy’s central proposition is that Ghana must work longer and harder to grow. The government has not responded to the specific claim.
