Picture a factory floor that never goes dark. The machines that hum through the day keep running into the evening, and a second and third crew keep the line moving through the night.
Orders are filled faster. Exports leave on time. Once idle people are earning wages.
That is the picture behind the 24-Hour Economy Programme, and the 2027 Budget Statement has just backed it with money and policy.
For business owners, the practical questions are simple: what do we get, what is expected of us, and how do we sign up?
What the Budget announced
To support the Programme, the Government announced three measures:
• Deferred import duty, levies and VAT. Payment on qualifying machinery and inputs is deferred for one year. Enterprises then pay the full amount due the following year.
• Accelerated depreciation. Enterprises can deduct the full cost of a qualifying asset for tax purposes over two years.
• Duty and VAT exemption on solar panels and batteries. The exemption is part of the incentives under the 24-Hour Economy Programme and applies to households and businesses alike.
The Budget also commits GH¢165 million to the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat to implement the Programme, and names the Ghana Sovereign Wealth Fund as equity partner for projects under it.
What this means for your business
Cash flow comes first. Adding a shift usually means buying machinery or inputs before the extra revenue arrives.
Deferral gives a business a year of breathing room on import duty, levies and VAT, so working capital can go into wages, raw materials and power rather than a tax bill on day one.
To be clear, deferral is not an exemption. The tax is still due, but it falls after the extra shifts have started to earn.
Tax relief follows quickly. Accelerated depreciation lets a business write off the full cost of a qualifying asset in two years.
A company that buys machinery to run a second or third shift can reduce its taxable profit sooner, which shortens the payback period.
Energy gets cheaper to own. 24/7 production depends on dependable power. With duty and VAT removed from solar panels and batteries, a factory, cold store or agro-processor can generate and store some of its own electricity and cut its exposure to outages.
An illustration, with made-up numbers: a food processor plans a second shift and imports a new packaging line.
Instead of paying the import taxes upfront, it pays them a year later, once the second shift has been selling product for months. It then writes off the machine’s cost over two years. Both measures bring relief forward in time, when the business needs it most.
The commitment that comes with it
The incentives reward firms that put capacity to work. Every participating enterprise must sign a Performance Agreement with binding commitments to create jobs, make additional investments and comply with its tax obligations.
Participating enterprises must also adopt the 1-3-3 shift system, in which one position is filled by three workers across three eight-hour shifts.
No one is forced into this.
Presidential Adviser on the 24-Hour Economy programme, Mr. Goosie Tanoh has said that you “can’t force anybody to do a 1-3-3”: the aim is to create incentives and an environment in which longer operating hours make business sense.
How to access the incentives
1. Register your interest. Go to 24hplus.gov.gh, open the Contact Us menu and choose the Expression of Interest form. Give your organisation’s details and the opportunity you want to pursue, such as becoming a 24/7 Ready Business, setting up agro-processing, or taking space in one of the programme’s parks.
2. Get reviewed. The 24H+ Secretariat reviews submissions. Registering opens the conversation with the Secretariat. It is not an approval.
3. Sign a Performance Agreement. Spell out your commitments on jobs, additional investment and tax compliance.
4. Adopt the 1-3-3 shift system in the operations covered by the agreement.
5. Claim the measures on qualifying machinery and inputs.
Questions businesses are asking
Is joining compulsory?
No. Participation is voluntary, and the Programme is led by the private sector.
Is this only for big companies?
No. The 24/7 Ready certification is the entry point for firms of different sizes, and the programme has set out to train and certify thousands of SMEs alongside large-firm pilots.
Where can I find financing?
The programme points businesses to concessionary loans through Development Bank Ghana and equity funding through the Venture Capital Trust Fund, with priority for cooperatives and trade associations.
What about the solar exemption?
The Budget exempts solar panels and batteries from import duties and VAT as part of the Programme’s incentives, and the measure is open to households and businesses.
More than tax: the system around the incentives
Tax measures are one part of a wider push to make continuous production practical. The Budget plans a 1,450MW thermal power plant, a 600MW solar power plant and 2,000 megawatt-hours of battery storage, which will help meet the continuous energy demands of the 24-Hour Economy.
It also plans to invest US$1 billion under the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme to turn Ghana’s textile and garment industry into a competitive supplier for global fashion markets.
Opportunities on the 24H+ portal already include the Garments Park, the Wumbei Industrial Park, the Tamale Air Cargo Hub and agro-processing facilities.
President Mahama has described the Programme as a “holistic, integrated multisectoral programme” that tackles the bottlenecks holding back production in agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing and the creative industries.
The Budget’s incentives, energy plans, and equity partners make that description concrete.
The next step
For a business owner, the first step takes about as long as filling in a form. Visit 24hplus.gov.gh, submit an Expression of Interest, and start the conversation with the Secretariat.
The Programme rewards firms that invest, hire, and keep their capacity working, and the 2027 Budget has made that easier to do.
Written by: Sircoffie; contact the writer at coffiemmanuel30@gmail.com
