The Ministry of Interior has declared January 7, 2021, as a public holiday.

According to a statement signed by Sector Minister, Ambrose Dery and sighted by JoyNews, January 7 will be marked as “Constitution Day.”

“The general public is hereby reminded that Thursday, January 7, 2021, which marks ‘Constitution Day’ is a statutory Public Holiday and should be observed as such throughout the country,” the statement said. 

Background

In December 2018 a bill was laid before Parliament to amend the Public Holiday Act 2001 to provide for three different holidays.

These new holidays were 7th of January which was observed as Constitution Day, 4th of August which was described as the Founders’ Day and the 21st of September was marked Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.

In 2017, President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, proposed that August 4 should be observed as Founders Day in memory of the successive generations of Ghanaians who contributed to the liberation of the country from colonial rule and September 21 set aside as a memorial day for Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President who was instrumental in the fight for the 6th March independence.

This bill was subsequently passed by Parliament and assented to by the President.