Ghana’s 24 Hour Economy Secretariat is disputing Minority claims that the flagship jobs programme has produced no results despite roughly 650 billion cedis in government spending since 2025.
The dispute traces to remarks by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, who told the House this week that nearly two years into the administration, no government agency has adopted the “one job, three people, three shifts” model the policy was built around, popularly known as 1 3 3.
“There is not one government agency implementing the one three three model,” Oppong Nkrumah said, citing Ghana Statistical Service figures putting youth unemployment at about 32.4 percent to argue the delay carries real cost. He noted the Minority pushed unsuccessfully for amendments to the 24 Hour Economy Authority Bill, passed in February with presidential assent, that would have named specific agencies such as the DVLA, Customs and the Passport Office as early adopters of round the clock operations. He also questioned the government’s newer focus on building 24 hour markets, pointing to existing markets in his constituency that already sit idle most days of the week.
The Secretariat’s response reframes what success should look like. It argues the programme was always designed as private sector led, with government limited to project preparation, coordination and viability gap financing rather than direct funding of most projects, and that the roughly 650 billion cedis Oppong Nkrumah cited represents the entire national budget across all government activity, not spending on this initiative specifically. It points to 5.5 billion dollars in Joint Development Agreements signed with co development partners as of May, a jobs target of 1.7 million by 2028, and four recent agreements it says will generate more than 160,000 direct jobs on their own.
Among the projects the Secretariat cites as evidence are a 1.45 billion dollar solar and battery facility at Buipe expected to deliver 1,500 megawatts and about 13,000 jobs, and a 250 million dollar oil palm complex at Kambonwule projected to support up to 120,000 jobs once fully running. It also points to extended hour services already operating at the DVLA, Ghana Publishing Company and Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.
What the two sides dispute is less whether investment activity exists than whether it matches what was promised. Oppong Nkrumah’s benchmark is the specific 1 3 3 shift model government agencies were meant to demonstrate first; the Secretariat’s benchmark is private capital mobilized and projects in the pipeline, a shift in framing that leaves the original shift based promise still unmet by the Secretariat’s own account, even as it argues the underlying investment case is real.
