The Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG) has released a report on the 24-hour economy policy proposed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
This report marks the inaugural publication of the GRASAG Policy Research Index (GPRI), a novel initiative aimed at systematically evaluating and influencing policy directions through rigorous research within the postgraduate student community.
During the unveiling of the research report, the national president of GRASAG, Mr. Emmanuel Owusu, highlighted some key findings from the study.
“We found that the 24-hour economy, if implemented would create a lot of employment opportunities for our young people. Infact, it was the major thing in terms of what our respondents were saying. We also found out that it will birth the ground for skills training. We did also find out that it’ll boost economic growth and infrastructure of the country.”
He also called on the media to scrutinize the report to improve discussions on the 24-hour economy policy.
“We want the media to interrogate the work that we have done, so that we can improve the discussion. So that when our political communicators go on radio and TV, they can now refer to an academic work that was done to enhance the conversation around the 24-hour economy.”
In an exclusive interview with Univers News, the head of GRASAG’s research directorate, Mr. Mark Amoah Nyansapoh, discussed the motivation behind the research work while underscoring some challenges they encountered.
“First and foremost, it’s been quite a tedious work, simply because we went through a lot of difficulties in terms of getting our colleagues graduates students, so we had to be pushing the work. The main purpose of the research is, it has become increasingly and very important to make sure that the views of the Ghanaians especially, the graduate students are taken into consideration when it comes to policy formulation.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the national development plan for the country that every political party need to take into consideration, so, it has become important for us to produce a cutting-edge survey like this, that is policy based. That is why we first took the 24-hour economy; it is supposed to influence this policy. The manifesto is not out yet, so we’re hoping that our recommendations will be taken into consideration in the manifesto.”
According to Mr. Nyansapoh, the project on the 24-Hour economy was solely funded by the GRASAG national secretariat.
He also revealed that their upcoming focus would be on Ghana’s digital economy which is a policy direction of the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer.
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Story by: Abdul Razak Wahab | univers.ug.edu.gh
