Your 24-hour economy can't work; it's a by-product of Bawumia's 'Digital Ghana' agenda — Nana B slams Mahama

The National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B has slammed former President John Dramani Mahama's proposed 24-hour economy policy.

He has labelled it a "confused policy" indicating that it is unattainable without the digitalization agenda outlined by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Former President Mahama outlined his vision for Ghana, promising to introduce a 24-hour economy if elected president.

He noted that providing incentives and tax breaks for manufacturers running extra shifts enhances employment opportunities.

However, Nana B, discussing Dr. Bawumia's vision for Ghana on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show says Mahama's 24-hour economy policy is impractical without proper digitization efforts.

He argued that for an economy to operate 24hours, it must undergo digital transformation, aligning with Bawumia's 'Digital Ghana' agenda.

"It's a confused policy...24-hour economy is a by-product of an economy that we want to move to digitalization," Nana B remarked during the interview.

To drive home his point, Nana B cited examples from China, highlighting that even in advanced economies like China, shops close after 6pm.

He questioned Mahama's assertion, asking, "Are you better than the US? Are you far advanced than China?"

Nana B expressed scepticism about the feasibility of Mahama's proposed 24-hour economy, stating, "When you ask them what are details, they can't say anything...It cannot work."

In addition to critiquing Mahama's policy, Nana B took the opportunity to compare the economic track records of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration with the previous Mahama government.

Despite global challenges impacting Ghana's economy, Nana B claimed that the current administration had outperformed its predecessor, citing data on average growth in agriculture, industry, service sector, and unemployment rates.

"In spite of all the challenges, we have done far better in the economy more than the NDC and the data is there...When you take the average growth for even Agric from 2017 till date, it's 5.8; under NDC, it was 3.9. We've done better than them. Despite the global problems that affected us, we still did better than them.

"When you look at industry growth and find out that, under NDC from 2013 to 2016, it was 3.3 percent and from 2017 till date, it's 10.8 percent. We did far better than them. When you take the service sector, from 2013 to 2016, it was 5.2 but check ours from 2017 till now, it is about 5.1. When you look at the unemployment rate, we've done better than them; from 2014 to 2016, it was 12.92. From 2017 till date, it is 9.00,” he said.