Rethink the 24-Hour Economy: Ghana Needs 24-Hour Hospitals and Industries First

The conversation around Ghana’s “24-Hour Economy” has sparked healthy debate. The idea is simple and ambitious: keep the economy running around the clock to create jobs, boost productivity, and grow GDP. Markets, factories, hospitals, and services would operate in shifts, and the country would literally never sleep.

But as we design this policy, we must ask a practical question: what are the things Ghanaians cannot postpone? What are the things that must run 24 hours whether the economy is booming or not?

My answer is straightforward. People can fall sick at any time and must be rushed to hospital. Industries must run 24 hours to meet demand and create real jobs. Markets, however, follow a different logic. Buyers will only visit the market if they have money in their pocket. If I don’t have money to patronize goods, I will leave the market before the sun sets, and sellers will be forced to close early.

For that reason, the government of Ghana should prioritize 24-hour hospitals and 24-hour industries before we pour resources into 24-hour markets.

Sickness Doesn’t Keep Office Hours
The most urgent argument is health. Illness, accidents, and emergencies do not wait for 8:00 am. Imagine a child with convulsions at 2:00 am, a road accident on the Accra-Kumasi highway at midnight, a woman in labor at dawn or a heart attack during the night shift!

Right now, many district and regional hospitals are “open” 24 hours, but they are not truly functional 24 hours. You will find one doctor, no specialist, no lab technician, no pharmacist, and no fuel for the generator. Patients are told to “come back in the morning” for X-rays, blood tests, or to buy prescribed drugs.

A genuine 24-hour hospital system means fully staffed emergency units, working labs, pharmacies, theatres, and reliable power and water — every hour. It means nurses, doctors, and specialists working in shifts with proper incentives. It means ambulances on standby and referral systems that work at night.

The payoff is immediate: lives saved. Productivity gained. Families kept intact. A sick worker cannot work in any 24-hour factory. A mother who loses a child to a midnight emergency cannot go to market the next day. Health is the foundation. If we get hospitals right, every other sector benefits.

Industries Create the Money People Spend in Markets

The second pillar must be industry. For a 24-hour economy to work, we need products to sell, exports to earn forex, and wages to put money in people’s pockets.

Factories that run three shifts produce three times more. Food processing plants can preserve farm produce that currently rots overnight. Textile mills, pharmaceutical companies, and steel manufacturers can meet both local and export demand without delays.

24-hour industries also create the best kind of jobs: formal, shift-based jobs with overtime pay. A young man working a night shift at a bottling plant earns money. That money is what he uses to buy in the market on Saturday. A woman in a garment factory on evening shift can now afford school fees and food for her children and the family as whole.

This is the cycle we need: Industry → Wages → Purchasing Power → Market Activity.

If we start with markets first, we put the cart before the horse. An empty market at 10pm is not a sign of failure. It is a sign that buyers have no money. The solution is not to force sellers to stay open. The solution is to create jobs that give buyers money.

Government’s role here is clear: reliable power, tax incentives for shift work, security for industrial zones, and cheaper credit for companies willing to run 24 hours.

Markets Follow Money, Not the Clock
This is where we must be honest. Markets are demand-driven.

A buyer only comes when they have money. In a struggling economy, trading peaks in the morning and dies by evening. Sellers themselves close early because staying open with no customers means paying for light, security, and transport for nothing.

Forcing markets to operate 24 hours without first solving purchasing power will lead to three problems: low sales with high costs, security risks and wasted resources.

Markets will naturally extend their hours when the economy improves. Look at places like some parts of Lapaz, Osu and Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra or popular bus terminals in the country. Nobody tells the traders to converge at these places to do business 24/7; demand does.

The Way Forward: Sequence Matters
I am not against a 24-hour economy. I am arguing for sequencing and priorities.

Phase 1: 24-Hour Health and Security
Upgrade emergency units in all regional and district hospitals. Stock pharmacies. Ensure labs and imaging work at night. Provide streetlights and police patrols for areas where night economic activity will happen. More importantly, expand health infrastructure by paying attention to stalled hospital projects.

Phase 2: 24-Hour Productive Industries
Identify 10 anchor industries — agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, textiles, manufacturing — and support them to run three shifts. Guarantee power. Give tax breaks for night-shift allowances. Link them to farms and ports.

Phase 3: 24-Hour Services and Markets
Once wages are rising, then invest in 24-hour markets, transport, banking, and e-commerce. By then, people will have the money to shop at 10pm, and the market will sustain itself.

Conclusion
A nation that runs 24 hours must first guarantee that no Ghanaian dies because a hospital closed at night. It must ensure that factories are producing and workers are earning.

Markets are important. They are the face of our commerce and culture. But they are the effect, not the cause. You cannot shop if you are sick. You cannot shop if you are broke.

So let’s be strategic. Let the government focus first on 24-hour hospitals that save lives, and 24-hour industries that create wealth. When people have health and have money, they will fill the markets at any hour of the day.

That is how we build a 24-hour economy that is real, not just a slogan.

The author is a regular contributor to News Commentary, a current affairs programme by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, and a columnist with Modern Ghana, an esteemed online news portal.

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