Ghana now has 9 public holidays in a calendar year

The government of Ghana has tabled an amendment bill to the Public Holiday Act in Parliament on Thursday (December 13, 2018).

This means that August 4 of every year will henceforth be known as Founders Day and January 7 will be commemorated as Constitution Day.

Meanwhile, the birthday of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, which hitherto was marked as the country’s Founders Day, will now be known as Nkrumah Memorial Day.

Per the bill all 3 days will be observed as statutory holidays in addition to the two already existing commemorative days, July 1 and May 25, Republic Day and AU Day, respectively.

The Amendment Bill outlined the number of holidays in the year. These are “New Year Day (1st January) Constitution Day (January 7) Independence Day (6TH March), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Eid-al-Fitr (Ramadan), Workers Day (1st May), Farmers Day (1st Friday in December) Christmas Day (25th December), Boxing Day (26th December), African Union Day (25th May), Republic Day (1st July).”

In 2017, Ghanaians debated whether to celebrate September 21 as Founder’s Day or Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day after President Akufo-Addo proposed a legislation to Parliament to designate 4th August as FOUNDERS DAY, and 21st September as KWAME NKRUMAH MEMORIAL DAY.

A statement signed by the Director of Communication at the presidency, Eugene Arhin, at the time, said: “... In the meantime, the President has issued an Executive Instrument to commemorate this year’s [2017] celebration of KWAME NKRUMAH MEMORIAL DAY as a public holiday.

“This means Thursday, 21st September, which hitherto was marked as Founders Day will now be celebrated as Nkrumah Memorial Day in honour of Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.”

Below is the amendment bill tabled in Parliament