Market Update: Finance, Economy & Trade with Richmond Kwame FRIMPONG – Full Analysis

Accelerating SEZ Policy Implementation

… actionable pathways to unlock the 24-Hour Economy Programme

Ghana’s pursuit of industrialization, accelerated export development and job creation has increasingly highlighted the strategic importance of Economic Zones. Yet, despite the demonstrated potential of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to drive structural transformation, the Country still lacks a fully enacted and integrated SEZ policy and legal framework. Ghana has operated the Free Zones concept since 1995, it is time to transition quickly to an overarching SEZ policy framework, with the proposed Special Economic Zones Bill currently in draft form as of late 2024. This leaves regulatory fragmentation that dampens investor confidence and slows industrialization, accelerated export development, economic structural transformation and ultimately job creation.

This policy gap persists even as multiple studies and the annual economic zones policy roundtable  by the African SEZ Chamber reaffirms the transformative role Special Economic Zones can play in enhancing productivity, integrating value chains, retaining export earnings and generating employment across diverse sectors. Stakeholders such as the Economic Zones Chamber Ghana, have repeatedly underscored the need for a modernized and coherent SEZ policy to align Ghana’s zone development with global best practices. Consensus from government, academia and industry is that, rapid policy passage and implementation are now essential macroeconomic priorities, aligned with regional moves toward a Continental SEZ framework.

The absence of a dedicated policy slows investment mobilization and weakens Ghana’s competitive positioning in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) era. A well‑defined Ghana’s SEZ Policy is now a macroeconomic emergency that must consolidate regulatory clarity, streamline institutional coordination and enhance investor confidence.

Given the rapid expansion of SEZs worldwide and the increasing regional push – through ECOWAS – to harmonize legal and regulatory standards for zone development, Ghana’s delayed implementation of an SEZ policy constitutes a macroeconomic risk. The current vacuum constrains the country’s ability to fully leverage spatial industrial policy as a tool for economic transformation.

Accordingly, addressing the absence of a comprehensive SEZ policy is essential for accelerating industrialization, accelerating export competitiveness and positioning Ghana as a competitive investment destination within West Africa and beyond.

Ghana’s pledge to operationalize a 24‑hour economy is strategically sound only if it is anchored in accelerated industrial policy-  specifically, timely approval and operationalization of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) framework, the Textiles & Apparel policy and the pharmaceuticals policy. These are not sector memos; they are the enabling structural architecture for 24/7 production, export diversification and forex resilience.

The continuous delay in the implementation of the SEZ Policy is a macroeconomic emergency. It needs urgent Presidential attention, to rescue.

1) The current implementation delays creating a Risk Premium for Ghana

Predictable, published policy reduces investor risk premiums and unlocks capital expenditure for factories, logistics, and technology upgrading. Ghana has circulated a draft SEZ Bill outlining governance, designation criteria, land regimes, and an infrastructure fund, but enactment remains pending – leaving developers and anchor tenants without certainty on incentives and one‑stop services.

2) The Production Engine Behind a Real 24‑Hour Economy with near zero fiscal funding

SEZs concentrate infrastructure, customs facilitation, and aftercare to support continuous manufacturing and logistics. Peer jurisdictions have modernized SEZ regimes and are refining incentives—Kenya amended its SEZ Act in 2024 to cap incentive duration at 10 years as part of broader reforms, while Rwanda’s revised SEZ policy sets clear designation, land, and benefit rules to crowd‑in private developers. Ghana’s delay therefore widens a competitiveness gap right when AfCFTA scale can reward first movers.

3) Ghana’s budding Textiles & Apparel’s Industry : A Time‑Sensitive Jobs and Exports Play

Global brands are diversifying supply chains, and Ghana has footholds – AGOA participation and emerging apparel platforms—yet the absence of a finalized national Textiles & Garments policy slows cluster formation, skills pipelines, tariff/energy alignment for night shifts, and access to export finance. Recent government briefings indicate the policy is being finalized with parks and plug‑and‑play infrastructure, but execution pace will determine whether Ghana captures shifting orders or cedes them to regional competitors.

4) Ghana’s Growing Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Industry as Health Security and FX Strategy

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is inherently shift‑based and high‑value. Ghana’s FDA has achieved notable regulatory milestones – including WHO prequalification of the national drug physicochemical lab and updated GMP guidance – yet firms need a coherent industrial policy that de‑risks API and biologics investments, aligns incentives, and links R&D to production assets like Pharmaceutical Innovation Parks with donor programmes (e.g., USP/PQM+, GIZ PharmaVax, UK-Ghana Partnership for Jobs and Economic Transformation) supporting capacity, the missing piece is speed and clarity on the national policy and incentives.

5) The fundamental Macroeconomic Structure of a recovering economy

• Jobs: Labour‑intensive apparel and 24/7 zone operations are among the quickest paths to scale formal employment.
• FX and Cedi Stability: Exporting garments and medicines, substituting imports (e.g., essential medicines), and raising non‑traditional exports directly ease forex pressures.
• AfCFTA Upside: Without bankable policies, Ghana cannot fully leverage AfCFTA’s market access with continuous production and time‑definite logistics.
• Credibility of the 24‑Hour Agenda: Without industrial anchors, the 24‑hour economy risks remaining a service‑heavy, low‑wage expansion rather than productivity shock.

Actionable STEPS for Government to Fast‑Track the SEZ Policy Implementation in the Next 180 Days

• Pass and gazette the SEZ Act; establish the SEZ Infrastructure Fund; operationalize one‑stop services in priority parks (Tema Export Processing Zone, Regimanuel Light Industrial, Bright Industrial FTZ, Appollonia Industrial, Arise IIP-TDC-GIADEC,  Boankra corridor in the Ashanti Region, West Park in Takoradi etc).
• Publish interim SEZ implementation guidelines (customs, land, environmental permitting) so investors can proceed while regulations are finalized.
• Issue the Textiles & Garments policy with a financing window through Ghana’s Development and Export -Import Banks; designate at least two apparel clusters with night‑tariff pilots for three‑shift operations.
• Publish a Pharmaceuticals industrial policy with clear incentives for GMP upgrading, API pilots, and vaccine/biologics lines, tied to SEZs and export rebates.
• Embed industrial policy milestones into the 24‑Hour Economy programme as a Policy driver under the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry through the 24HR + Secretariat(Make24/Connect24) with quarterly dashboards and investor aftercare KPIs.

Measurement and Governance

Create an Inter‑Ministerial Industrial Policy Acceleration Taskforce(Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Ministry of Employment, Ministry of Youth Development, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Communications) with private‑sector SEZ Chamber co‑chairs; publish a 12‑month regulatory calendar; and track three headline metrics such as :

(i) SEZ tenant FDI committed, (ii) shift‑based manufacturing jobs, and (iii) non‑traditional export value from textiles and pharmaceuticals.

Conclusion

The 24‑hour economy and export acceleration programme will succeed or fail on the strength of Ghana’s industrial policy clock speed. Fast‑tracking the delayed Special Economic Zones, Textiles, and pharmaceuticals policies in 2026 is the fastest route to translate the 24‑hour narrative into factories, exports and macro stability, at zero infrastructure cost to government.

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