Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and John Dramani Mahama
Who would have taught that a day will come where Ghanaians sleep and wake up to be greeted with the forbidden message that the God we all serve is a sleeping God?
Nobody expected this to be said by anybody any where in the world but the powerful 24-hour economy promise of John Mahama has forced the NPP's running mate Dr. Matthew Opuku Prempeh popularly referred to as Napo to falsely accuse God of sleeping at night. “It is not possible, there is no country in the world that works 24 hours. Even God who created the world sleeps at night.”
This sharply contradicts his boss, Dr. Bawumia who believes Ghana is already operating a 24-hour economy. Aside contradicting his boss, Napo must be told that 24-hour economy is operational in other countries including; USA, Canada, France, United Kingdom, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia and Germany.
The 24-hour Economy is intentioned to make the dormant night economy function. It will share one job across three shifts, and will create jobs in both private and public sectors. A job position that is traditionally occupied by one person will now be occupied by three people with each person working for 8 hours each day.
Simply put, 24 hours are equally shared for three people on the same job in a structured shift system. To make it simple for all to understand, the NDC constructed a well explained "Formula 1-3-3" to mean "Same Job, Three Shifts, Three People."
The aim is to stimulate economic growth by enabling extended operating hours to create more employment opportunities across various sectors of the economy such as manufacturing and production, retail, hospitality, construction, transportation and healthcare. By stimulating economic growth in various sectors, jobs will be created, economic stability achieved and there will be general improvement in the quality of life.
To achieve this, government will provide conditions and incentives necessary for the success of a 24-hour Economy. The NDC will ensure an enhanced lighting system to ensure that power failures do not occur. Adequate security will also be provided in the night and this will make workers feel safe at any time of the day.
Again, a 24-hour ports and harbour services, passport services, sanitation and waste management services, transport services, health services and financial services will be made adequately available by the next John Mahama government. This will help the private sector access government services anytime the need be.
Not all, the next John Mahama government under the 24-hour economy will provide tax incentives and create conditions for easy access to credit at very low interest rates.
To back this promise, President Mahama expressly declared that he will banish the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), Covid Levy, Sanitation and Pollution Levy (Borla tax) and the 10 percent Withholding Tax and several other nuisance taxes introduced by this government. A tax regime that is so simple, convenient, affordable and understandable will be introduced to make it easy for commerce to thrive.
The interest rate regime is also killing businesses and John Mahama will further the 24-hour economy by ensuring that we have an interest rate regime that will make Ghanaian businesses competitive.
Some banks in Ghana are currently charging as high as 50 percent interest on loans with the current interbank interest rate at 30 percent. This makes foreign companies borrow at lower interest rates in their parent countries and invest in Ghana thereby making Ghanaian businesses uncompetitive. For instance, interest rates at Burkina Faso is around 5.5 percent.
As part of efforts to bring interest rates down, John Mahama will develop a comprehensive credit system specifically for youth entrepreneurs to provide partial credit guarantees, soft loans and grants to youth led businesses. This will make them have access to cheap finance, invest in their businesses, create jobs and offer competitive prices thereby ensuring business sustainability.
For the 24-hour economy to succeed, John Mahama Knows he must ensure that there is increased production of raw materials to serve industries and also create conditions for increased demand for commodities produced by participants in the 24-hour economy. Because of these, the Resetting Ghana Manifesto contained adequate provisions to address these issues.
First, agriculture is going to be seriously prioritized. John Mahama will establish Farmer Service Centres, to support farmers with modern agriculture equipment, technologies and inputs in all agricultural districts. He will also create Farm Banks within agriculture zones to ease access to land, and irrigation facilities for agricultural purposes and encourage young people into farming.
The manifesto also promises to implement a Transformational Grains Development (TGD) Project to increase the local production of maize, rice, soya beans, sorghum and other staples for domestic consumption and processing.
Additionally, the manifesto intends to roll out a Livestock Development Project (LDP) to boost meat and dairy production especially of cattle, piggery and small ruminants and introduce a National Livestock Day to acknowledge the contribution of the sector to economic growth and promote animal husbandry. This and many more the NDC believe will adequately provide raw materials to serve the industrial sector to achieve the object of the 24-hour economy.
Second, John Mahama intends to increase demand for excess goods produced under the 24-hour economy. To achieve this, President Mahama will establish and personaly chair an Accelerated Export Development Programme to facilitate access to foreign markets for Ghanaian products and also leverage the benefits of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) for manufacturing and exports.
A national shipping line will be established and operationalized to promote exports and imports. Again, these and many more will increase demand for the excess goods produced under the 24-hour economy.
The way the 24-hour economy promise is communicated with clarity to Ghanaians and the general acceptance of it is not making a single soul in the NPP find sleep. They have made all manner of irrational claims to downplay the policy but Ghanaians still believe it will reduce the unemployment rate currently at 14.7 percent to manageable levels.
Remember, the former Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, at a festival, was reported as saying; “the vice president is saying that he understands the region. He says this 24-hour economy, my brothers; when we work in our farms and we are tired we have to sleep with our wives. We have to be with our wives. In the night you want us to go and be farming and then people will come and take our wives away? Naa, chairman we have to be careful with this 24-hour thing”
The NPP who campaigns on a slogan of "it is possible" have all of sudden eaten back their own vomit claiming the 24-economy is not possible. Those who decribed the NDC and critical minds as naysayers, evil, nation wreckers and minds of impossibilities have perfectly worn the shoes they taught fit the NDC and all right thinking Ghanaians.
Napo and the NPP must know that God sleeping at night is not possible and this can only be conceived by minds of impossibilities but the 24-hour economy "is possible."
