Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem has dismissed suggestions that the government’s flagship 24-hour economy policy has been sidelined after it was not highlighted by Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson during the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review.
According to him, the policy remains on course and is being implemented gradually, despite its absence from the Finance Minister’s budget statement.
Speaking after the presentation of the Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, Mr Nyarko Ampem said the policy was clearly captured in the accompanying budget documents.
“The 24-hour economy is on course even though the Finance Minister didn’t mention it. If you look at our documents, the Mid-Year document itself contains sectoral performance and expectations for the 24-hour economy. So it is working gradually and there are no two ways about that,” he said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen.
The Deputy Finance Minister also defended the government’s management of Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves, noting that while reserves had declined slightly in recent months, they remained significantly stronger than what the current administration inherited.
He explained that Ghana’s gross international reserves had at one point risen to cover 5.7 months of imports before declining to five months, describing the movement as part of normal economic cycles.
“We can agree that at a point our reserves had risen to cover 5.7 months of imports. It has come to five months of imports. There are seasonalities in this; sometimes it goes down before building up again,” he stated.
Mr Nyarko Ampem argued that the current reserve position compares favourably with the nearly four months of import cover left by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
He further announced that the government had introduced the Ghana Gold Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP), which aims to build sufficient reserves to cover up to 15 months of imports by 2028.
According to him, the initiative is anchored on a gold-led strategy intended to strengthen Ghana’s external reserves and improve foreign exchange inflows.
While acknowledging that international gold prices have begun to decline, he said the government was taking advantage of current market conditions to build reserves, while also pursuing other sources of foreign exchange to reduce overreliance on gold.
“We recognise that we cannot rely solely on gold, so we are looking at other areas that can generate foreign exchange to improve our reserves. We are also working on refining our gold locally to bring more forex into the economy,” he added.
Mr Nyarko Ampem stressed that Ghana remains committed to operating a flexible exchange rate regime as part of broader efforts to sustain macroeconomic stability.
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