By Lord Fiifi Quayle

For decades, many Ghanaians have grown up with a quiet assumption: that government has it all. That somewhere in Accra, there is a bottomless purse, capable of paying for jobs, subsidies, allowances, free utilities, and free opportunities. When times are hard, we look upward. When prices rise, we protest the state. When youth unemployment bites, we ask what government will do.

This expectation is understandable. The state collects taxes, borrows in our name, and controls public resources. But it is also deeply misleading and it is one of the biggest obstacles to Ghana’s ambition of building a real 24-hour economy.

Nothing is free.

Not school feeding. Not free SHS. Not free electricity at night. Not roads, ports, hospitals, or digital infrastructure. Every “free” programme is funded by resources that must first be produced by people working, trading, innovating, and taking risks. Government does not create wealth; it redistributes what citizens and businesses generate.

In Ghana, we have blurred this truth. We speak as though the state is a giver and the people are receivers. In reality, it is the other way around. The state can only give what society has already produced.

This matters because a 24-hour economy cannot be built on expectations of handouts. It can only be built on labour for profit, enterprise for profit, and productivity for profit.

A true 24-hour economy means factories running night shifts because demand exists. It means logistics companies moving goods at midnight because supply chains are active. It means nurses, technicians, programmers, security personnel, cleaners, traders, and drivers choosing night work because it pays not because government asked them to sacrifice.

Profit is the engine. Labour is the fuel.

When we demand “free” everything, we quietly kill that engine. Businesses hesitate to expand hours if energy is unreliable, taxes are punitive, or margins are thin. Workers resist night shifts if wages do not justify the cost to health, safety, and family life. Investors stay away when productivity is low but expectations of state support are high.

A 24-hour economy flourishes only when people understand a simple truth: resources must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is us.

Ghanaians are not lazy. Markets open before sunrise. Farmers work through the heat. Informal traders already operate long hours with little protection. What is missing is not effort, but a national mindset that respects profit as legitimate, work as wealth-creating, and enterprise as the foundation of social progress.

Government still has a role, a critical one. It must provide security, stable power, fair regulations, transport infrastructure, and a predictable tax environment. It must protect workers from exploitation and ensure night work is safe and dignified. But it cannot replace the productive role of citizens with promises of “free”.

If we want jobs, we must support businesses that can afford to hire.

If we want social programmes, we must expand the tax base by expanding productivity.

If we want a 24-hour economy, we must be willing to work and allow others to profit around the clock.

The uncomfortable truth is this: Ghana cannot be a nation of expectations and still become a nation of production. We must choose.

The 24-hour economy will not be declared into existence by policy statements. It will emerge when Ghanaians shift from asking, “What will government give us?” to asking, “What can we produce, trade, and scale day and night?”

Only then will the lights stay on, not because they are free, but because the economy can afford them.

GHANA MUST WORK AGAIN