THE 24-HOUR ECONOMY AGENDA CANNOT THRIVE IF EXIM BANK FAILS TO SUSTAIN INDUSTRIES

President John Dramani Mahama has consistently signaled a national reset toward industrialization, job creation, export growth, and import substitution. The Bank of Ghana is also making difficult macroeconomic reforms aimed at lowering inflation, stabilizing the cedi, i and gradually reducing interest rates to restore confidence in the economy.

However, if Ghana’s development finance institutions, as especially Ghana Export-Import Bank, fail to align with this national direction, then the country risks losing billions in industrial investments, thousands of jobs, and years of economic opportunity.

The President, therefore, has every reason to demand accountability for production losses and unrealized job capacity caused by underfunded industrial projects that were never properly supported to maturity.

This is because many Ghanaian industries did not collapse because the ideas were bad, but because their financing stopped halfway.

Ill-funded industries cannot reach full capacity

Across Ghana, several agro-processing and manufacturing projects were financed only partially — enough to build infrastructure and acquire machinery, but not enough to secure raw materials, working capital, market expansion, guarantees, or operational sustainability.

Factories designed for 24-hour production have been left operating at below 10% capacity, not because the vision was wrong, but because the financing structure was incomplete.

Many of these businesses:

Built factories

Imported processing lines

Created jobs

Secured export markets

Opened international trade channels

Sustained operations under extreme pressure

Yet after all these investments, many industries were denied the very instruments development banks around the world use to help strategic sectors survive and scale.

This is where the national frustration begins.

Ghana cannot continue celebrating factory commissioning ceremonies while those same factories quietly struggle for survival months later due to a lack of operational support.

Industrialization is achieved when factories survive, expand, employ people continuously, and produce competitively for decades.

Development Banks Are Meant to De-Risk Industry — Not Abandon It Globally, development banks do far more than provide loans. They provide: 1. Credit guarantees

2. Equity participation

3. Letters of Credit (LCs)

4. Raw material financing

5. Export guarantees

6. Structured moratoriums

7. Working capital support

8. Supplier contract financing

9. Interest support mechanisms

10. Risk-sharing frameworks with commercial banks

If EXIM had strategically deployed these instruments, many Ghanaian industries would have become bankable enough for commercial banks to participate confidently.

Instead of industries being viewed as distressed, they could have become:

Expansion opportunities

Export champions

Job creation engines

Foreign exchange earners

Anchor borrowers for syndicated financing

The painful reality is that some industries that should have become national success stories are today struggling merely to survive.

The Central Bank Is Doing Its Part — EXIM Must Complement It The current efforts by the Bank of Ghana to stabilize the economy and reduce interest rates are important foundations for industrial recovery.

But lower interest rates alone cannot revive industries already burdened by:

Under-capitalization

High utility costs

Raw material shortages

Long gestation periods

Heavy capex exposure

Foreign exchange pressures

This is where the Ghana Export-Import Bank should become transformational.

EXIM should complement the Central Bank by:

Providing guarantees to reduce lending risk

Taking strategic equity positions in critical industries

Supporting export expansion

Financing contract farming and raw material security

Supporting youth supply chain programs under “Feed the Industries.”

Creating blended finance structures with commercial banks

When a development bank backs an industry properly, commercial banks gain confidence to participate because the risk profile changes.

Production Capacity Losses Are National Economic Losses

When factories operate at 5% or 10% capacity:

Thousands of potential jobs are lost

Tax revenues decline

Imports rise

Export opportunities disappear

Idle machinery depreciates

Loan repayment becomes impossible

Youth unemployment worsens

Ghana loses industrial competitiveness

The issue is therefore not merely about individual businesses.

It is about national productivity losses.

A factory built for 24-hour operation but left without raw material financing or operational support represents:

Lost employment capacity

Lost export value

FX generation

Lost industrial momentum

The President must therefore demand measurable KPIs from EXIM:

Jobs created and sustained

Factories operating at full capacity

Export growth achieved

Industrial survival rates

Raw material security programmes financed

Commercial bank leverage achieved through guarantees The number of distressed industries successfully restructured instead of being foreclosed

Youth employment ecosystems created

Because a development bank that finances factories but cannot sustain industrial productivity risks becoming only a lender, not a development institution.

Ghana Must Shift From Collateral Banking to Development Banking Many Ghanaian industries are asset-rich but cash-flow-constrained during growth stages.

A development bank should recognise:

Installed factory capacity

Market access potential

Export contracts

Employment impact

Strategic national value

Supply chain influence

Instead, too much emphasis has historically been placed on collateral recovery rather than industrial growth recovery.

No industrial economy in the world develops sustainably by aggressively collapsing productive assets during temporary financial distress.

True development banking measures success by:

Economic transformation

Jobs created

Exports generated

Import substitution achieved

Industrial ecosystems built

Not simply by foreclosures.

Because once factories collapse, rebuilding them costs far more than restructuring and sustaining them.

The President’s 24-Hour Economy Depends on Industrial Survival. The 24-Hour Economy vision cannot succeed if existing industrial investments collapse under financial pressure, after billions have already been invested into infrastructure and machinery.

Ghana cannot continuously talk about youth employment while factories capable of employing thousands remain underutilized. Nor has the country achieved export-led growth, while processing industries struggle to secure operational financing.

The faster path to economic transformation is not starting entirely new factories every year.

It is:

Reviving underutilized factories

Expanding existing processors

Supporting raw material ecosystems

Financing youth supply chains

Unlocking export growth

Helping industries move from survival to scale

This is why the President must demand stronger alignment between: Bank of Ghana

Ghana Export-Import Bank

commercial banks

Industrial policy agencies

Agribusiness supply chains

Export development programmes

Conclusion:

If Ghana truly wants industrial transformation, then development finance institutions must be measured not only by loan recovery, but by:

Factories sustained

Production capacity unlocked

Exports expanded

And youth jobs created.

The President, therefore, has legitimate grounds to hold Ghana Export-Import Bank accountable for production and employment capacity losses where strategic instruments such as guarantees, equity participation, restructuring support, and raw-material financing could have transformed struggling but viable industries into globally competitive national assets.