Dennis Asare, a senior research associate with IMANI Africa, weighed in on the ’24-hour economy’ policy being promised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a measure to address the unemployment challenges in the country.
Speaking at IMANI’s “2024 IMANIfesto,” Asare raised concerns about its feasibility and the specificity of its proposed incentives.
He questioned the necessity of keeping all public services operational around the clock, emphasising the role of digitalisation and automation.
Asare suggested that agencies like the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and financial services could enhance access without needing to function 24 hours, citing the convenience provided by mobile money interoperability, which already enables financial transactions at any time.
“The NDC’s job creation proposal is anchored around the 24-hour economy. If you try to group their anchor sectors, it has agro-processes, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, construction, manufacturing industry and services. Under services, we have financial services, sanitation and waste management, hospitality, retail centres, transport and public services. These public services are supposed to offer some services that will show that businesses can thrive. Now, the key intervention that they are proposing is that they want to implement a raft of tax incentives, but they did not specifically say that these are the tax benefits that will be channelled directly for the 24-hour economy.
“Another challenge is that if you look at the public services category, you don’t need all of them to be functioning 24 hours in terms of physical presence. By way of automation and leveraging on digitalisation, some of these services, for example, DVLA and other systems, are enhanced, and a greater portion of their work can be automated. Citizens can access their services at any point in time. For financial services, because of the mobile money interoperability system, people can do financial transactions by using their phone, so they may not need to be operating for 24 hours.
“Another challenge is that if you look at the hospitality industry, for them to operate 24 hours, there should be some incentives; access to credit must be cheaper, and exchange rate issues and inflation must be addressed. When you look at the current tourism report in 2023, Apart from 5-star hotels that were occupied about 70% in a year, and 4-star and 3-star with 50% occupancy, all other accommodation facilities are doing just 33% occupancy. They are not doing it. Even for those that operate 24-hours, there are challenges. So, for them to effectively do that, the incentive package must be so strong. In terms of retail centres, they are driven by demand. When there is demand, retail centres are going to operate 24 hours.
“Now, there is an increase in electronics and automation in the way businesses do things on e-commerce. So now more businesses are shifting online and leveraging e-commerce to reach a lot more customers. As such, they may not need to be operating 24 hours, but through e-commerce, their businesses can operate 24 hours,” he stated.
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