President John Dramani Mahama cut the sod on Saturday for the commencement of construction works on the Tamale 24-hour Economy Market at Kukuo — the largest of all the markets being constructed under the government’s flagship 24-Hour Economy initiative.
Addressing residents and traders at the ground-breaking ceremony as part of his two-day “Resetting Ghana” tour of the Northern Region, Mahama said the Kukuo facility will transform Tamale into the commercial nerve centre of northern Ghana — and is expected to be completed within 34 months.
Scale of the Build
The Kukuo market is being built to handle round-the-clock commerce, with a second production shift from 6pm to 6am designed to expand employment beyond the traditional single-shift retail day. Key features include:
- Cold-chain storage and perishables warehouses
- Dedicated shea, groundnut, and livestock trading halls
- On-site banking, clinic, day-care, and security posts to support night-shift workers
- Solar roof arrays and 24-hour water supply so trading continues during grid dips
- Parking and loading bays sized for cross-border articulated trucks from Burkina Faso and Togo
Why Tamale
The Northern Region feeds the national food basket — maize, rice, yam, groundnuts, shea, and livestock all route through Tamale. Until now, the region’s commerce has been constrained by the lack of a modern, 24-hour-capable trading hub. The Kukuo market is the government’s answer.
“Tamale is the commercial gateway to the Sahel. If we get Kukuo right, the entire 24-hour economy has a functional northern anchor,” Mahama said.
The Broader 24-Hour Programme
Kukuo is the largest of several sites already under construction or in the pipeline. Other markets under the programme are being developed in Ashaiman, Kumasi, Takoradi, and Bolgatanga. Government is targeting 800,000 direct and indirect jobs under the 24-hour initiative by 2028.
Roads and Power
Mahama also used the Northern Region tour to underline the parallel infrastructure push. About 2,000 kilometres of roads are currently under construction simultaneously across the country, including regional-capital-to-district-capital links. On the energy front, the President said NEDCo is replacing transformers across Tamale and surrounding communities to address low-voltage and outage complaints flagged by residents.
Reaction
The Northern Regional House of Chiefs and the Tamale Market Traders Association welcomed the sod cut. Private-sector observers cautioned that the 34-month timeline will require disciplined contractor management — a ministerial task force has been set up specifically to drive weekly progress reports.
Source: Office of the President / Ghana News Agency
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