Mark Badu-Aboagye, CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has criticised the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review for failing to provide a clear roadmap for implementing the government’s flagship 24-Hour Economy policy.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, he described the omission as a major disappointment and warned that Ghana risks missing a critical development opportunity if the policy is not backed by concrete action.

“Let me start with my disappointment with the Mid-Year Budget review. I will take you from the perspective of the 24 Hour economy. For me, it is the major development blueprint that we have in this country, and if you miss it, we are doomed in the next years ahead of us.”

According to him, every national budget should be aligned with the 24-Hour Economy agenda because of its importance to the country’s economic transformation.

“So I’m expecting that every budget, be it a Mid-year or a major budget, should be aligned to the 24-Hour Economy, and there should be strong policy statements on the 24-Hour Economy. I didn’t see or hear much about that.”

While praising the policy itself, Badu-Aboagye said the real challenge lies in execution.

“The policy is good, eloquently presented by the 24 Economy Secretariat. But the core issue is implementation.”

He argued that although the government repeatedly describes the programme as private-sector-led, businesses cannot drive industrialisation without the right conditions.

“But you need to create the environment for the private sector. That is what we are not seeing.”

He pointed to financing costs as a major obstacle, saying current interest rates remain too high for businesses seeking to invest in manufacturing.

“We’ve seen interest rates coming down, but for somebody who wants to go into industrialisation, 16.5% interest is still on the higher side.

"The policy rate of 14% is still on the high side. We talk about cost of electricity and all those things. So we need to create that environment for the private sector.”

He also questioned expectations that businesses would willingly borrow at commercial rates to establish factories.

“If you want them to say private sector, just as we’ve done for the previous development policies, the 1D1F, and we think that people will just get our private sector and just go and borrow at 35 per cent and go and set up a factory that will not make any profit for them. They won’t do that.”

He warned that without addressing these constraints, government risks repeating the implementation failures of previous initiatives.

Badu-Aboagye further argued that funding a secretariat alone is not enough to demonstrate progress.

“There is not enough in setting up a secretariat and saying that I have given them GH¢101 million to run the secretariat and have an office. What is on the ground for us to see is what we are looking out for.”

He maintained that industrialisation must remain the foundation of the 24-Hour Economy, insisting that exports and job creation cannot be achieved without it.

“For policy, as I said, industrialisation, export, and then job piece. If you miss the first one, which is the fundamental, that is the industrialisation, you can’t get the second one, can’t get the third one.

"So industrialisation is key. Whatever we need as the private sector to be able to kickstart this industrialisation, I think they should make it happen.”