Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has described Ghana’s heavy reliance on imports as an urgent national crisis, insisting that the newly launched 24-Hour Economy policy is the bold, deliberate solution the country needs.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, the Tamale South MP said the policy is a long-considered response to the ballooning import bill and a strategic move to shift the economy towards self-reliance and export-led growth.

“Today, we had a rare opportunity of President John Dramani Mahama, launching one of his major flagship projects and as he described it, from policy or from slogan to action, 24 24-hour-plus initiative of the president,” Mr Iddrisu stated.

He explained that Mahama used the launch to also unveil the Accelerated Export Development Initiative, a twin pillar of the economic vision.

The former Minority Leader said this is not a rushed political stunt but a policy deeply rooted in years of reflection.

“He shared with the Ghanaian people that 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.”

The rationale, he noted, lies in hard economic facts.

“About $3 billion on rice imports, $3.4 billion on cereal grains, frozen poultry on $2.6 billion and sugar taking $2.4 billion,” he said.

These numbers, he stressed, are not just fiscal statistics but urgent red flags demanding a structural fix.

For Mr Iddrisu, the 24-Hour Economy and export acceleration drive is Mahama’s answer to a national dilemma.

“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 added that President Mahama is baffled by Ghana’s continued dependence on imported goods.

“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,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu also highlighted the decision to place respected technocrat Goosie Tanoh at the helm of the 24-Hour Economy implementation team.

“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.”

He emphasised that the real impact of the initiative will come from its design as a private-sector-led reform.

“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.”