What if we have misunderstood Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy from the very beginning?
What if the real question is not whether businesses should remain open for 24 hours, but how we can make it easier for them to do so?
And what if Ghana’s employment challenge is not simply a shortage of jobs, but a shortage of access to productive work?
These questions matter because a sustainable 24-Hour Economy cannot be built by simply asking businesses to work longer hours.
Businesses stay open when doing so makes commercial sense.
For many employers, extending operations means hiring more permanent staff, increasing payroll costs and taking on long-term commitments, even when additional demand may exist for only a few hours a day.
Perhaps, then, we have been asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking how businesses can work longer, we should ask how we can make it easier for them to expand their productive hours
That is the thinking behind what I call theNational Productive Hours Framework (NPHF), a conceptual labour reform designed to support Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy.
Its central idea is simple: employers do not necessarily need more permanent employees; they need access to productive labour when demand requires it.
Take a supermarket. Its need may not be three additional full-time cashiers. It may simply need 240 additional cashier hours each week.
Under the NPHF, workers would still go through the normal recruitment, vetting and training processes.
But once qualified, they would be placed in an approved labour directory. When additional labour is needed, employers could first draw from this pool instead of beginning the recruitment process all over again.
The business gets faster access to qualified workers. Workers gain quicker access to income and experience. Customers receive better service.
More importantly, this could change how young Ghanaians experience the labour market.
Every year, thousands of graduates submit applications and attend interviews, often competing repeatedly for the same limited vacancies.
Hundreds may apply for one position, even when many of them are qualified.
The NPHF proposes that workers compete once to demonstrate competence, character and professionalism.
Once they qualify, they remain available for productive opportunities within the employer’s approved labour pool.
The goal is to shift employment from waiting for vacancies to maintaining access to productive work.
That distinction could be significant.
A graduate who might otherwise spend years searching for a permanent position could begin earning, gaining experience and building a professional reputation much sooner.
The framework also addresses a key challenge facing the 24-Hour Economy: businesses may already have demand beyond traditional working hours.
Supermarkets have late-evening customers. Warehouses receive urgent orders. Manufacturers experience seasonal demand.
Logistics companies operate at night.
The demand exists. The challenge is responding to it efficiently.
Rather than asking, “Can we afford another full-time employee?”, a business could ask, “Can the demand justify four additional productive hours?”
If qualified workers are already available, the risk of extending operations becomes much lower.
A supermarket could remain open until 10 p.m. A warehouse could introduce evening operations during peak periods.
A manufacturer could add production hours to meet new orders without completely restructuring its workforce.
Longer operating hours would then become a response to business opportunity, not government instruction.
That distinction is crucial.
A sustainable 24-Hour Economy cannot be built on directives alone. It must be driven by commercial confidence. When businesses can expand more easily, they create more productive hours. More productive hours create more opportunities to earn.
Increased incomes stimulate consumption, which encourages businesses to produce, invest and expand further.
That is how economic growth becomes self-sustaining.
The NPHF also challenges how we think about unemployment.
We often define employment as having one permanent job. But in a modern economy, perhaps the more important question is whether qualified people have fair and regular access to opportunities to earn.
The framework does not promise everyone a job. Nor does it seek to replace permanent employment or weaken labour protections.
Instead, it complements existing employment models by giving businesses greater flexibility while creating more pathways into productive work.
Ultimately, the conversation around Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy should go beyond keeping businesses open after midnight.
The bigger question is whether we can redesign the labour market, so businesses naturally choose to extend their operations because growth has become easier and less risky.
If we continue organising work around yesterday’s economy, tomorrow’s economy will remain out of reach.
But if businesses have continuous access to productive labour and qualified Ghanaians have greater access to productive work, the 24-Hour Economy can become more than a government policy.
It can become the natural outcome of a more productive, competitive and inclusive economy.
Because a 24-Hour Economy is not simply about adding more shifts.
It is about giving businesses the flexibility to access productive hours when opportunity demands them.
