Midweek Holidays Shift to Fridays, July 1 Turns Holiday Again
Ghanaians will soon enjoy longer weekends, as Parliament has passed the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days (Amendment) Bill, 2025, with major changes to the country’s holiday calendar.
Among the biggest changes is the shift of all midweek holidays to Fridays, and those that fall on weekends to the following Monday.
The new law, passed under a certificate of urgency, was presented and read for the first time by the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, on June 24, 2025.
It seeks to amend the original Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Act of 2001 to restructure holiday dates, bring back July 1 as a public holiday, and introduce a new Islamic holiday.
From now on, if a holiday falls on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, it will be observed on the nearest Friday. Similarly, holidays that land on Saturday or Sunday will be moved to Monday.
According to the Interior Minister, this change aims to boost productivity and give people longer weekends to relax, travel, or engage in leisure activities.
He explained that midweek holidays often disrupted the working week, lowering productivity as people either took extra days off or lost focus at work. The new law, he added, solves this problem while also creating new economic opportunities, such as boosting tourism related activities.
The bill reintroduces July 1st as Republic Day, making it a full public holiday once again. The day, which marks Ghana’s transition to a republic in 1960, was previously downgraded to a commemorative day in earlier reforms.
“Mr. Speaker, we are keeping 1st January as New Year Day, 7th January as Constitutional Day, 6th March as Independence Day, March or April for Good Friday for our Christian brothers, March or April as Easter Monday for our Christian brothers, 1st May as Labour Day, 1st July as Republic Day.
It was pushed to commemorate it. We believe that this is a very significant day in the life of Ghana that we should not just relegate to the background and therefore we are bringing it back as a full holiday and we believe that as a country we are united around the 1st July,” he stated.
In contrast, the government has scrapped August 4 as Founder’s Day, saying it caused division. Instead, September 21st which is Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday, will be restored as Founder’s Day.
“We have taken out the August 4th, as the then be termed as Founder’s Day. We believe that as a country we are not unanimous around it and it serve as a division day. We have maintained the September 21ST, which the date of birth of Dr. Nkrumah, the founder of our country and the one who lead us into independence,” Mr. Muntaka told Parliament.
The bill also introduces “Shaqq Day,” a new statutory holiday to be observed the day after Eid-ul-Fitr. This is to give the Muslim community an extra day to rest, reflect, and spend time with family after the Ramadan fast.
This brings the total number of public holidays in Ghana to 14. The Interior Minister said the number is not too many and would not negatively affect the economy.
Despite the passage of the bill, the Minority in Parliament expressed concerns about its urgency. They argued that other pressing national matters should have taken priority.
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