Ghana to observe Jan 7 as holiday

The Ministry for the Interior has declared Monday, 7 January 2019 a public holiday.

This was contained in a press statement signed and issued by the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, on Thursday, 27 December 2018.

“The general public is hereby informed that Monday 7th January, 2019 has been declared a Public Holiday, as ‘Constitution Day’, and should be observed as such throughout the country,” the statement said.

Government tabled an amendment to the Public Holiday (Amendment) Bill 2018 in parliament on Thursday, 13 December 2018.

The Amendment Bill outlined the number of holidays in the year, including “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).”

August 4 of every year will henceforth be known as Founders Day.

Also, 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 while January 7 will be known as Constitution Day.