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The Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, has challenged civil servants to take the lead in driving the government’s 24-Hour Economy agenda by ensuring consistency and continuity beyond changing political leadership.
He explained that while political leaders change with electoral cycles, the civil service serves as the nation’s institutional memory, making it vital to anchor the long-term reforms needed to transform Ghana’s economy.
He said the civil service must be the steady hand that keeps the 24-Hour agenda on course, even as the government changes and new priorities emerge.
“The civil service is the anchor of continuity. Unlike political leadership, which changes with the electoral cycle, the civil service is the institutional memory of the government. It preserves knowledge, records, and processes that ensure continuity.”
“The 24-Hour agenda by design is long-term. It seeks to re-engineer how our economy functions from production and services to regulation and monitoring.
Such a long-riding reform cannot rely solely on the passion of political leadership nor be sustained without a civil service anchoring its continuity,” Mr Debrah said at the opening of an inaugural workshop on the 24-Hour Economy initiative in Accra yesterday.
On the theme: "Mobilising government machinery for whole of government delivery," the workshop created a platform to share insights on the 24-Hour Economy initiative and how stakeholders can support its implementation.
The workshop, which was organised by the 24-Hour Secretariat, was attended by the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama; the Presidential Advisor on the 24-Hour Economy policy, Goosie Tanoh; Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Nii Moi Thompson; the Head of Civil Service, Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, and other dignitaries.
The Chief of Staff stated that the civil service served as the engine of policy integration, driving cohesion across diverse sectors impacted by the 24-Hour agenda, including energy, trade, agriculture, industry, transport, health, education, finance, security, and local government, thereby necessitating a multifaceted and coordinated approach.
He said that while each ministry or agency had its distinct mandate, the absence of integration and collaboration posed a significant risk of fragmentation in both policy formulation and operational effectiveness.
He said, for instance, that extending industrial production hours hinged on a reliable energy supply, which in turn was insufficient without a complementary efficient transport system capable of facilitating the movement of goods during nighttime operations.
"Even with energy and transport, if our ports and customs system remains rigid, then exporters will face bottlenecks that will undermine their competitiveness.
It is the civil service that ensures coherence, aligning ministry work plans, harmonising regulations, streamlining reporting lines, and preventing duplication.
The 24-hour agenda therefore requires civil servants who think beyond silos, who see the ministry's mandate not in isolation, but as part of a national ecosystem.
The civil service at the front line of service delivery," he added.
The Governor, for his part, said the vision of the 24-Hour concept was bold and practical to unlock productivity across all sectors of the economy, to create quality jobs, and to transform Ghana into a competitive hub that never sleeps.
"It is about agriculture that processes through the night. It is about factories that run multiple shifts.
It is about logistics networks that move goods seamlessly, and it's about services that are digitally enabled and always, always available.
“So for the Bank of Ghana, this initiative matters to us deeply.
A successful 24-hour economy requires not just energy and infrastructure, but also financing systems that keep pace with new patterns of production entry," he said.
Dr Asiama said the initiative would require banks and fintechs to extend credit responsibly, ensure payment systems that worked around the clock, and it would also require a monetary and financial framework that keeps inflation low and the currency stable.
"These are the enabling conditions that allow businesses to plan, invest and expand.
We also recognise that the 24-Hour concept will create new demands for SME financing, trade credits, green and climate-aligned investment, and for stronger partnerships with development finance institutions," he added.
Mr Tanoh said the government was starting a journey that would reshape the economy and governance.
He said the 24-Hour Economy was not just a slogan, a branding exercise, but a systemic transformation of how Ghana produces, distributes, consumes and competes globally.
