Why Government Has Declared September 22 As Holiday

At a press briefing in Accra, leaders of the

The Ministry of the Interior has declared Monday, September 22, 2025, as a public holiday to be observed nationwide.

According to the Ministry, the holiday on Monday, September 22, 2025, has been necessitated because the actual holiday, which is for the Founder’s Day celebration, falls on Sunday, September 21, 2025.

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In a statement signed by the minister, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka , he said that President John Dramani Mahama, through an Executive Instrument (EI), and in accordance with Section 2 of the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Act (Act 601), which was amended, has declared Monday, September, 22 as a public holiday.

“The general public is hereby informed that Sunday, 21st September 2025, marks Founder’s Day, which is a Statutory Public Holiday,” the statement said.

“However, in view of the fact that 21st September 2025 falls on a Sunday, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, has, by Executive Instrument (EI), in accordance with Section 2 of the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Act (Act 601), as amended, declared Monday, 22nd September 2025, as Additional Public Holiday and should be observed as such throughout the country,” it added.

This comes on the back of Parliament passing the new Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Amendment Bill 2025, removing the August 4 Founders’ Day holiday from the national calendar in June 2025.

In its place, September 21, the birthday of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was reinstated as the official Founder’s Day.

The amendment also introduced July 1 as a public holiday, to mark Republic Day, celebrating Ghana’s transition to a republic in 1960.

Other recognised holidays retained included New Year’s Day (January 1), Constitution Day (January 7), Independence Day (March 6), the two Eids, Labour Day (May 1), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Farmers’ Day (first Friday in December), Christmas (December 25), and Boxing Day (December 26).

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This decision reversed the 2019 amendment under President Akufo-Addo’s administration, which had designated August 4, the celebration of Ghana’s founding fathers, while changing September 21 to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.