Merban Capital: $4bn projection for 24-Hour Economy inadequate

Published 18 hours ago• 2 minute read

Nelson Cudjoe Kuagbedzi, Head of Finance at Merban Capital, has expressed doubts over the adequacy of the $4 billion budget allocated for Ghana’s 24-hour economy policy, arguing that the amount may fall short of what is needed to effectively execute such an ambitious programme.

Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue with Sammi Wiafe, Kuagbedzi noted that the scale of the initiative—launched by the Mahama administration on July 2—requires significantly more resources than currently projected.

“Now this is the challenge: how is the government going to fund this policy? Per what President John Dramani Mahama said, about $4 billion is the cost that they envisage for the implementation of the programme. But if you look at how ambitious this project is, $4 billion may not be sufficient to roll out,” he suggested.

He underscored the importance of establishing a clear and sustainable funding mechanism, warning that many government initiatives in Ghana have failed due to inconsistent financial support.

“The government said it will be committing $300 million as seed money for the initial rollout of the programme. The question that we need to ask ourselves is how the private sector or the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund will raise this money.

“Where are they going to raise this money? We must have a secure source of funding to make implementation easy. The issue is that anytime programmes or policies are rolled out in this country, we don’t have a dedicated source of funding for the programme.”

To address this challenge, Kuagbedzi suggested that the government explore leveraging pension funds to support implementation.

“One of the areas I think they can look at is the pension funds. The assets under management of pension funds by the close of the year [2025] are targeted to hit close to GHC100 billion. I think they can leverage pension funds to get some funds to support the 24-hour policy,” he opined.

Despite his concerns about funding, Kuagbedzi lauded the policy’s transformative potential.

“In general, I think that the policy is a very brilliant policy, it is going to transform the fundamentals of the economy. 1.7 million direct quality, decent jobs the programme intends to offer is not far-fetched,” he remarked.

The 24-hour economy policy aims to boost productivity, expand employment opportunities, and drive economic growth by encouraging continuous operations in key sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and public services.