The Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, Attah Issah, has defended the government’s decision to establish a 24-Hour Economy Authority, insisting that the policy requires a legally backed institution to ensure effective implementation.

His defence follows objections from the Minority caucus, which has argued that the proposed authority would be redundant, claiming that existing ministries and agencies are capable of supervising the policy without the creation of a new body.

The MP explained that the 24-hour economy is a complex, multi-sector programme that demands a central coordinating body with budgetary support, legal authority and the capacity to work across ministries, departments and agencies.

He maintained that as a flagship government initiative, the programme must be anchored by an institution with a clearly defined mandate to guarantee accountability and compliance.

“A secretariat is merely an administrative arm of government under the Office of Government Machinery. It has no dedicated budgetary allocation, no legal structure, and no legal capacity. What we are proposing is to give the programme legal backing so that when coordination is required from a ministry, there is a legal obligation for that ministry to comply,” Attah Issah said in an interview with Channel One TV on Thursday, February 5.

According to him, relying solely on a secretariat would be inadequate to drive the scale and coordination required to successfully implement the 24-hour economy policy nationwide.