WILL PRESIDENT MAHAMA’S 24H+ PROGRAMME SUCCEED?
ARTICLE 5 – CONSTRUCTION
BUILD24 SUB-PROGRAMME
BY
HANS PETER RECKLING
WEBSITE: https://recklingenterprise.com
BEFORE WE GET TO THE ANALYSIS, HERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE BUILD24 SUB-PROGRAMME
BUILD24 – Infrastructure Backbone of the 24H+ Programme
BUILD24 is the infrastructure-focused sub-programme within Ghana’s 24H+ framework. Its goal is to provide the physical foundation needed to unlock productivity and attract investment. The emphasis is on transport, energy, water, digital connectivity, and social infrastructure that enable the other pillars of the programme (like GROW24 and MAKE24) to function.
Main Components:
- Transport & Logistics: Roads, bridges, rail links, and modernised ports to reduce costs and connect industrial and agricultural zones.
- Energy: Expanding and stabilising the power grid, with renewable inputs to support industrial parks and manufacturing hubs.
- Water & Irrigation: Dams, boreholes, and irrigation systems to support agriculture and resilience against climate stress.
- Digital Infrastructure: Broadband expansion, fibre-optic corridors, and data centres to support innovation and service delivery.
Social Facilities: Affordable housing, schools, and health centres around new growth hubs to anchor communities.
Challenges:
Land acquisition, high financing costs, weak maintenance culture, coordination gaps across ministries, and the risk of over-concentration of projects in certain regions.
Potential Impact:
If implemented as planned, BUILD24 could reduce structural bottlenecks, make Ghana more competitive for investment, and enable long-term industrialisation. But success depends on sustainable financing, transparency, and balanced regional rollout.
Overlap Across Sub-Programmes
- Shared Challenges
- Land acquisition & tenure issues → Affects farms (GROW24), factories (MAKE24), and infrastructure sites (BUILD24).
- Financing gaps → All three rely on large, long-term investment with high upfront costs.
- Capacity & skills shortages → Farmers need training (GROW24), workers need technical skills (MAKE24), and engineers/contractors are scarce (BUILD24).
- Regional imbalance → Tendency to cluster projects around Volta/Lake Volta corridor, leaving other regions under-served.
- Shared Solutions
- Public–private partnerships (PPPs) to spread costs.
- Land reforms to secure access for agriculture, industry, and infrastructure.
- Capacity building & training through technical institutes and community programmes.
- Integrated planning (corridors, clusters, hubs) instead of scattered projects.
- How They Depend on Each Other
- GROW24 (Agriculture): Needs irrigation, storage facilities, and rural roads — provided by BUILD24.
- MAKE24 (Industry): Needs stable power, industrial parks, and transport corridors — all under BUILD24.
- BUILD24 (Infrastructure): Only makes sense if farms (GROW24) and factories (MAKE24) are ready to use the infrastructure.
SUMMARY PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI).
WE SEE IN THE SUMMARY THAT IF FULLY IMPLEMENTED, BUILD24 COULD SOLVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS GHANA HAD IN THE PAST AND STILL HAS RIGHT NOW. THE QUESTION ARISING IS WHETHER IT CAN REALISTICALLY BE IMPLEMENTED COMPLETELY, CONSIDERING THE CHALLENGES BUILD24 AND THE OTHER SUB-PROGRAMMES ARE FACING. ALL THREE, GROW24, MAKE24, AND BUILD24, – AND AS WE WILL LATER SEE, NEARLY ALL THE OTHER SUB-PROGRAMMES – ARE AFFECTED BY LAND ISSUES, FINANCING DIFFICULTIES, AND CAPACITY AND SKILLS SHORTAGES. AND THE SOLUTIONS THE GOVERNMENT OFFERS MAY SOUND NICE IN THEORY, BUT THE REALITY IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED. APART FROM THE FINANCING ISSUE, AT WHICH WE LOOK LATER WHEN WE EXAMINE THE FUND24 SUB-PROGRAMME, THE SUB-PROGRAMME ARE SO CLOSELY LINKED THAT PROBLEMS IN ONE SUB-PROGRAMME CAN EASILY AFFECT ONE OR MORE OF THE OTHERS.
WE SEE IT IN THE CASE OF BUILD24 THAT IT ONLY MAKE SENSE IF THE FARMS AND FACTORIES ARE READY TO USE IT. THE QUESTION IS – WILL WE ESTABLISH THE FARMS AND FACTORIES FIRST AND THEN BUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE AROUND IT? THAT WOULD MEAN THAT FARMS AND FACTORIES CAN ONLY PRODUCE EFFECTIVELY WHEN THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS READY; THEY MUST WAIT FOR IT. OR WE START BUILDING ALL THE THREE AT THE SAME TIME. THAT SHOWS THAT IF ANY PROJECT OF GROW24 OR MAKE24 IS FASTER THAN THE PROJECT OF BUILD24, IT MUST WAIT FOR THE BUILD24 PROJECT TO BE COMPLETED. THAT WOULD PRODUCE IN ANY WAY A LOSS OF TIME FOR GROW24 OR MAKE24. IT SEEMS THAT THERE IS NO PLAN TO COORDINATE THE VARIOUS PROJECTS AND SUB-PROGRAMMES.
EVEN THE INTEGRATED PLANNING WHICH IS SUGGESTED IN THE 24H+ PROGRAMME CAN ONLY HELP PARTIALLY. LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF INTEGRATED PLANNING:
Integrated planning is a cross-functional approach that aligns resources, stakeholders, and strategic goals to ensure effective decision-making and resource allocation across an organization or project.
INTEGRATED PLANNING IN THAT SENSE CANNOT SOLVE ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THE COORDINATION BETWEEN GROW24, MAKE24, AND BUILD24. IT CAN ONLY SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE MANY OF THE KEY DIFFICULTIES IF IMPLEMENTED PROPERLY. IT CAN SOLVE THE FOLLOWING:
— DUPLICATION OF EFFORTS – OVERLAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE OR INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS AT THE SAME TIME;
— RESOURCE ALLOCATION;
— DATA AND MONITORING;
— REGIONAL BALANCE (WHETHER THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO ACHIEVE THIS IS A DIFFERENT QUESTION. I HAVE ALREADY POINTED OUT THE REGIONAL IMBALANCE OF THE 24H+ PROGRAMME).
WHAT INTEGRATED PLANNING CANNOT SOLVE IS THE FOLLOWING: INSTITUTIONAL, POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REALITIES CAN LIMIT PROPER IMPLEMENTATION.
—- INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION;
— FUNDING DISPARITIES;
— HUMAN RESOURCE GAPS;
— POLITICAL AND REGIONAL PRESSUES.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 24H+ ECONOMY SECRETARIAT CAN HELP SOLVING THESE ISSUES, AND THE GOVERNMENT HAS MOVED TO CONVERT IT INTO A STATUTORY AUTHORITY, BUT UNTIL NOW IT HAS ONLY PASSED THE CABINET, AND IS STILL TO BE APPROVED BY PARLIAMENT. IN MY OPINION, THE PROCEDURE LASTS A LITTLE BIT TOO LONG FOR THE AMBITIOUS OVERALL PROJECT THE GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO ESTABLISH WITH THE 24H+ PROGRAMME. AND EVEN IF – WHEN – THE 24H+ ECONOMY SECRETARIAT IS APPROVED BY PARLIAMENT, IT CANNOT SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS WHICH OCCUR WITH THE ATTEMPTED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUB-PROGRAMMES INCLUDED BUILD24. ALL THE SUB-PROGRAMMES – PERHAPS EXCEPT FUND24 – NEED LEADERSHIP CONTINUITY, INSTITUTIONAL DISCIPLINE, AND MERIT-BASED MANAGEMENT.
LEADERSHIP CONTINUITY INVOLVES POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL STABILITY, WHICH GHANA HAS ONLY SHOWN PARTIALLY IN THE PAST. POLITICAL CYCLES – PARTY CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT – HAVE USUALLY INTERRUPTED CONTINUITY, ALTHOUGH IN SOME SECTORS, E.G. EDUCATION AND COCOA – HAVE SHOWN SOME KIND OF INSTITUTIONAL STABILITY.
ON THE OTHER HAND, WE HAVE SOME EXAMPLES OF DISCONTINUITY. THESE ARE
— AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMMES,
— INDUSTRIALISATION INITIATIVES,
— LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND DECENTRALISATION,
— YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS PROGRAMMES.
WE SEE THAT THESE SECTORS WHICH SHOWED DISCONTIMUITY IN THE PAST ARE JUST THE ONES COVERED BY THE 24H+ ECONOMY PROGRAMME. FOR THE PROGRAMME IT MEANS THAT THE PROGRAMME MUST BE INSTITUTIONALISED AS LONG AS PUBLIC INTEREST AND DONOR ATTENTION ARE HIGH. THAT IN TURN MEANS THAT THE PROGRAMME MUST BE EMBEDDED IN A LAW – PROBABLY THROUGH THELAW – PROBABLY THROUGH THE 24H ECONOMY AUTHORITY ACT -, THAT THERE MUST BE A TECHNOCRATIC MANAGEMENT TEAM WHICH OUTLASTS ELECTIONS. AND THERE MUST BE THE BUILDING OF BROAD BIPARTISAN SUPPORT.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENT TO IMPLEMENT ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IS TO ELIMINATE OR AT LEAST MINIMISE CORRUPTION. SOME PEOPLE WILL SAY THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY IN VIEW OF THE TECHNOCRATIC MANAGEMENT TEAM. I SEE THE PROBLEM, BUT I ALSO SAY THAT IT IS POSSIBLE IF TECHNOCRACY IS LEGALLY PROTECTED, DIGITALLY TRANSPARENT, PUBLICLY MONITORED , AND MORALLY REWARDED. CORRUPTION MUST NO LONGER BE PART OF GHANAIAN CULTURE, GHANA MUST COMMIT TO
— GENUINE TECHNOCRATIC MANAGEMENT IN MAJOR PROGRAMMES,
— FULL DIGITALISATION OF STATE FUNCTIONS,
— CONSISTENT SANCTIONS FOR ABUSE.
(DETAILS CAN FOLLOW IN A POSSIBLE DISCUSSION.)
THE LAST QUESTION IN THIS CONTEXT IS WHETHER GHANA IS READY TO MINIMISE CORRUPTION, BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE ESSENTIAL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WHOLE 24H+ PROGRAMME.
ON PAPER, GHANA IS SURELY READY, BUT IN PRACTICE, THERE IS A LOT TO BE DONE. THE BOTTLENECK IS IN APPLICATION OF THE EXCELLENT THEORIES AND THE CONSISTENCY OF THE R. DETAILS FOR THIS CAN ALSO FOLLOW IN A POSSIBLE DISCUSSION. THEREFORE, THE CONCLUSION IS THAT GHANA’S SYSTEMS ARE READY, THE COUNTRY ITSELF NOT YET.
LET US NOW GO TO INSTITUTIONAL DISCIPLINE AND MERIT-BASED MANAGEMENT.
INSTITUTIONAL DISCIPLINE MEANS THAT INSTITUTIONS GUIDE DECISIONS, ENFORCE RULES, AND ENSURES CONSISTENCY. IN BRIEF IT MEANS THAT SYSTEMS WORK ACCORDING TO RULES, NOT PERSONALITIES. HOW FAR THIS IMPLIES FOR THE VARIOUS SUB-PROGRAMMES IS LEFT FOR A POSSIBLE DISCUSSION.
MERIT-BASED MANAGEMENT MEANS THAT APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, AND LEADERSHIP ROLES ARE GIVEN TO COMPETENT PROFESSIONALS BASED ON SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS, AND PERFORMANCE, NOT POLITICAL LOYALTY. PEOPLE MANAGE THE PROGRAMME BECAUSE THEY ARE GOOD ON THE JOB, NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE IN THE RIGHT PARTY. (DETAILS AS USUAL) BOTH PRINCIPLES ARE COMPLEMENTARY.
NOW THE QUESTION MUST AUTOMATICALLY COME UP WHETHER GHANA IS READY FOR THESE PRINCIPLES. THE RESULT OF MY RESEARCH IS THAT THE BARRIER IN GHANA IS NOT THE INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN, BUT THE POLITICISATION OF ADMINISTRATION. GHANREQUIRES A SHIFT OF THE POLITICAL MINDSET. THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP MUST VALUE THESE PRINCIPLES THERE MUST ALSO BE A CULTURAL SHIFT AWAY FROM CONNECTIONS OVER COMPETENCE. BUT THERE IS HOPE, AS
— PERFORMANCE METRICS ARE DEBATED ONLINE,
— INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IS EXPOSING FAVOURITISM,
— CIVIL SERVANTS ARE FORMING PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
WE SEE THAT THE OLD CULTURE STILL PERSISTS, BUT THERE IS HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE. IF THIS BETTER FUTURE COMES EARLY ENOUGH FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 24H+ ECONOMY PROGRAMME IS LEFT TO BE SEEN.
AS WE HAVE SEEN THAT THE FUNDAMENTALS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ARE THE SAME FOR ALL SUB-PROGRAMMES EXCEPT FUND24, I WILL COMBINE SHOW24, CONNECT24, ASPIRE24, AND GO24 IN ONE ARTICLE, AND THEN CONCENTRATE ON ANALYSING FUND24 AND THEN A CONCLUDING ARTICLE WHICH CAPTURES THE IF, HOW AND .WHEN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WHOLE 24H+ ECONOMY PROGRAMME.
