The 2027 Budget does not specify several incentives proposed to attract businesses into Ghana’s 24-hour economy programme; instead, it outlines a narrower set of tax measures for participating enterprises.
The omissions include corporate income-tax rebates for businesses operating multiple shifts, discounted electricity tariffs for night-time production and rebates on manufactured exports.
These were central features of the 283-page policy document released in July 2025 to support the NDC’s “1-3-3” vision of three people working successive eight-hour shifts in the same role.
The policy sought to make longer operating hours commercially attractive by reducing production costs and supporting business expansion.
It proposed the following incentives:
- Corporate income-tax rebates: A 25% rebate for businesses operating two shifts and a 50% rebate for those running three shifts.
- Full corporate income-tax exemptions: For businesses in designated agricultural sectors, including grains, vegetables, oilseeds, tubers, livestock and sugar.
- Discounted night-time electricity: Reduced tariffs for businesses operating between 10 pm and 6 am.
- Import-duty exemptions on production inputs: Covering manufacturing equipment, raw materials and logistics infrastructure.
- Import-duty exemptions on renewable energy systems
- Targeted VAT exemptions: To help lower the cost of locally manufactured goods.
- Export rebates: Payments equivalent to 2%-6% of the value of manufactured exports.
- Quicker access to water and electricity for participating businesses.
- Priority regulatory clearance
- Long-term, low-interest loans: Financing through Development Bank Ghana
- Easier access to cocoa beans: For local cocoa processors enrolled in the programme.
Alongside these incentives, the blueprint proposed large regional industrial parks known as Wumbei Parks. It also outlined plans for agricultural production and processing zones along the Volta Basin, supported by irrigation from the Volta Lake.
The objective was to connect production, infrastructure and logistics to support continuous economic activity.
However, the 2027 Budget and its accompanying presentation do not reproduce this incentive package. Instead, they identify three specific tax measures.
The first is a deferral of import duty, levies and VAT on qualifying machinery and inputs. Businesses would postpone payment for one year, then settle the taxes in full over the following two years.
The second is accelerated depreciation, allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of a qualifying asset over two years for tax purposes.
The third is an exemption from import duties and VAT for solar panels and batteries. The budget explicitly identifies this as part of the 24-hour economy incentives, although the measure also covers households and businesses generally.
These measures offer support, but their benefits differ from those envisaged under several of the original proposals.
For example, deferring import taxes gives a company more time to pay. It does not remove the liability, as an exemption would.
Similarly, accelerated depreciation brings forward deductions when calculating taxable profits. It does not provide the same benefit as the proposed 25% or 50% corporate income-tax rebate linked to additional shifts.
The budget presentation also sets conditions for accessing the deferral and accelerated depreciation measures.
Participating enterprises would be required to sign Performance Agreements containing binding commitments on job creation, additional investment, tax compliance and adoption of the 1-3-3 shift system.
Yet the budget does not specify the corporate tax rebates originally proposed for businesses operating additional shifts. It also does not set out the discounted electricity tariff for production between 10 pm and 6 am or the manufactured-export
That leaves an important question: are the announced measures an initial phase of the original package, or has the government revised what participating businesses should expect?
The distinction matters because the government continues to describe the programme as private sector-led.
A manufacturer considering a third shift would need to weigh the additional wages, electricity consumption and financing costs against the revenue it expects to earn. Cheaper night-time electricity and corporate tax rebates could influence that calculation.
A tax deferral could help the same business acquire machinery, but it would not necessarily address the recurring cost of operating that machinery overnight.
The budget provides other support for the programme.
It allocates ¢165 million to the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat and proposes that the Ghana Sovereign Wealth Fund, to be formed by merging MIIF and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, become an equity partner in programme projects.
Those commitments could support implementation and investment. They do not, however, clarify the status of the wider incentives outlined in the July 2025 policy document.
The original programme was estimated to require $4 billion initially, including $300 million in government seed capital, with the balance expected from public-private partnerships.
The policy document also proposed a 2.5% levy on selected imports that could be produced locally to help fund the programme.
Delivering the incentives would therefore require decisions about both financing and revenue. Tax exemptions and rebates would reduce government revenue in the short term, while the government expects increased production and investment to generate wider economic benefits.
The original document did not provide a detailed fiscal calculation showing how much the incentives would cost or how additional revenue would offset that cost.
The absence of several incentives from the 2027 Budget does not establish that they have been cancelled. But it leaves their implementation timetable and relationship with the newly announced measures unclear.
The government will need to explain which of the original benefits it still intends to implement, which have been revised and when participating businesses can access them.
The policy asks companies to invest, employ more people and operate additional shifts. Those companies need certainty about the support on which those decisions are expected to depend.
