Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says the ambitious 24-Hour Economy agenda cannot be delivered without prioritising education as its foundation.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, July 1, he emphasised that no aspect of the policy can succeed without an educated population.

“In delivering on the 24-hour economy, even if you want to succeed in fighting galamsey, you would need a trained mind. That has to be an educated mind,” the Tamale South MP said.

“You want to sell goods and know the prices of goods. You want an educated person to be able to do that. You want to control population, birth control and others.

"You want an educated woman to understand the value of doing that. So education, as I said, is the bedrock of development.”

Haruna Iddrisu’s comments followed the formal launch of the NDC’s flagship 24-Hour Economy policy by President John Mahama on Wednesday.

He described the event as a significant national moment that marked a shift “from policy or from slogan to action.”

“Today, we had the rare opportunity of President John Dramani Mahama launching one of his major flagship [initiatives], and as he described it, from policy or from slogan to action,” he noted.

The Education Minister explained that the 24-Hour Economy, along with an Accelerated Export Development Initiative, was not new to Mahama’s vision.

“This has been in his thinking and contemplation in the last four or more years. He’s talked about it whilst being out of government as President of the Republic,” Mr Iddrisu said.

He cited the President’s concern over Ghana’s heavy reliance on imports as a key motivation.

“We still spend huge amounts of money on imports—about $3 billion on rice imports, $3.4 billion on cereal grains, frozen poultry, $2.6 billion, and Sugar takes $2.4 billion.”

Haruna Iddrisu said the linkage between the two policies was clear and deliberate.

“The President lined the 24-Hour and Accelerated Export Development Policy with conviction and belief. And as he said, this is not an event or a race which must end today.”

For Mr Iddrisu, the vision is rooted in solving a national problem.

“It means that the President wants to respond to a national need, a need for us to invest more in - in his words - to have a self-reliant, dependent, food-sufficient, producing country that can feed itself in a country that guarantees food security.”

He said Mahama remains puzzled by the country’s continued import dependence.

“For the President now, he simply cannot understand why we should be an import-dependent economy, and what it is that we can produce? He would provide guidance and leadership as president.”

“That is why he’s gotten Goosie Tanoh, one of the sharpest and brilliant minds of the NDC, to be the anchor person to guide him in implementing the 24-Hour Economy.”

What stood out most to Mr Iddrisu was the President’s pledge to make the initiative private sector-led.

“For me, what was profound today is for the President to remark publicly that 24-Hour Economy will be private sector led, and that it will not be dominated by government, and that government will only be an enabler, a facilitator, for the private sector to take up the initiative in the various sectors of the economy.”