I am in the newspaper industry. We start work in the morning, ideally, as editors gather reporters in newsrooms, discuss story ideas and assign reporters on their various beats. Generally, the reporters are in by twelve to two p.m., and start handing over copy to the editors. Soon it goes to the boffins who set them ready for print. By six pm, the copy has been printed out, on the way to the darkroom, and later to print. By two a.m. in the morning, fully compiled copies are being collated, and by four am, the distributors and vendors would be receiving copies.
By six or seven pm, the distributors would be contacting the accounts people about sales for the day.
In between the steps I have outlined above, are dozens of other things that have to be done in the course of the day, like keeping online portals and social media pages updated.
By then, of course, the grind has begun again, at eight am. 24 hours of operations.
In the eighties and 1990s, radio and television stations used to shut down at twelve midnight and report back by four am. Today, they all operate round the clock, weekends and Sundays inclusive. 24 hours of operations.
All of Ghana’s roads are open twenty-four hours. I happened to me standing in front of the Melcom at Achimota at about four a.m. recently these days. I noted that the buses belonging to a company called V.I.P were clocking in at almost every ten minutes, often less. And they operate all day and all night, ferrying people all across the country. Twenty-four hours of operations.
I have been to police stations and hospitals in the night. They operate round the clock. I understand (I may be wrong) that medical doctors have forty-eight hour duty rosters. For them, twenty-four hour duty calls would be a luxury.
Many hotels operate for twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
Airports in Ghana operate for twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
And the list goes on. I am sure that if I were to make the effort, I can identify dozens of other industries that operate twenty-four hour schedules. And many more are coming on board. V.I.P, for instance, has to operate for twenty-four hours. The market demands it. People, for various reasons, have to travel round the clock; an industry has to be ready to meet the demand.
And that is the crux of the matter; demand.
Many, many years ago, I set up an office at Pig Farm, Accra, and tried to operate a twenty-four hour newsroom. After a couple of weeks, I gave up the idea. The staff sat there, in discomfort, all night, with nothing much to do. I was wasting money on overtime, and exhausting them to boot. I do not think that policemen or nurses who have to do night duty, will tell you that they have nothing to do. With the holidays coming up, the fun will really begin as night falls.
Demand is key.
So when Mr. Mahama, Flag Bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said that he would set up a ‘twenty-four hour economy’, the first question I asked myself was what he meant, and second, how he was going to go about it.
This is because, in my view, the industries that need to work for twenty-four hours, will not wait for any government to do so. Demand would ensure they do so, or find a way to do so.
The second question, though, was intriguing; what exactly, can any government do to ensure a ‘twenty-four hour economy’? It can maybe order ministries, departments, agencies and corporations it controls to stay open for twenty-four hours. Would such an order be practical?
Or it can decide to advance loans to certain private industries to operate for twenty-four hours. Most likely, this effort would fail in a few weeks, and the money wasted, because where there is no demand, all produce would end up on shelves and in warehouses. It would be another scam, like the guinea fowl that flew to Burkina Faso and never came back.
So when I heard some spokespersons of the government trying valiantly to punch holes in the ‘twenty-four hour economy’ statement, I wondered what their problem was. Mr. Mahama spoke without thinking, because, by and large, Ghana has a libertarian, free economy where demand sets the tone for what is done by the market. By seeking to criticize him, too quickly, you might fall in the same trap of opening your mouth to say things, without thinking.
My view was confirmed when I read that Mr. Mahama has said that he has set up a team to flush out the rudiments of his ‘twenty-four-hour economy’ policy. I said; ah, there it is. How on earth does a presidential candidate come out with a policy when his boffins have not thought the policy through?
