Ghana's public holidays after the 2025 changes: what employers need to set up

In June 2025, Parliament passed the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days (Amendment) Bill, and Ghana’s holiday calendar changed in three ways that matter for anyone running attendance or payroll:

1. 1 July (Republic Day) is a public holiday again.
2. Founders’ Day moved to 21 September, and 4 August is no longer a holiday.
3. Shaqq Day, the day after Eid-ul-Fitr, is a new holiday.

There is also a new rule that lets some holidays move to a Friday or Monday. If your attendance system still has last year’s calendar, staff will be marked absent on days they were legally off, or expected at work on days that are now holidays.

The full list

Holiday	Date
New Year’s Day	1 January
Constitution Day	7 January
Independence Day	6 March
Good Friday	Varies (March or April)
Easter Monday	Varies (March or April)
Labour Day	1 May
Eid-ul-Fitr	Lunar date, announced each year
Shaqq Day	The day after Eid-ul-Fitr
Eid-ul-Adha	Lunar date, announced each year
Republic Day	1 July
Founders’ Day	21 September
Farmers’ Day	First Friday in December
Christmas Day	25 December
Boxing Day	26 December

That’s 14 statutory public holidays.

Holidays can now move to Fridays and Mondays

The amendment lets the President, by executive instrument:

• move a holiday that falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to the Friday (or Monday), and
• move a holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday to the following Monday.

Religious holidays such as Christmas and Eid are not moved this way.

The important word is “may”. A holiday only moves when an executive instrument says so. Don’t shift dates in your calendar on the assumption that it will happen. Wait for the official announcement, then update.

What the Labour Act says about pay

Section 72 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) is one line long:

“Every worker is entitled to be paid his or her remuneration for public holidays.”

In practice, that means:

• Salaried staff are paid as normal for the month. A holiday is not unpaid leave.
• Daily and hourly workers who would normally have worked that day should still be paid for it.
• Staff who work on a public holiday are usually paid a premium. The Act doesn’t set the rate, so take it from your contracts or collective agreement. Double time is common.
• Annual leave isn’t reduced by a public holiday that falls during it (section 22). More on this in our guide to leave under the Labour Act. If someone is on leave from Monday to Friday and Wednesday is a holiday, they’ve used four days of leave, not five.

Setting up your systems

1. Update your holiday calendar with 1 July, 21 September and Shaqq Day, and remove 4 August.
2. Add Eid dates when they’re announced. Lunar holidays can’t be entered a year ahead with certainty.
3. Watch for executive instruments that move midweek or weekend holidays, and adjust the calendar when one is published.
4. Set your holiday pay rate for staff who work, and make sure it reaches payroll automatically.
5. Check leave calculations so public holidays are not deducted from leave balances.

How Eban handles holidays

Eban keeps a public holiday calendar for each organisation, and you can add company-specific days off too. Holidays feed straight into work schedules, so nobody is expected at work on a holiday and nobody is marked absent for it. If someone does clock in on a holiday, Eban pays those hours at the holiday rate you’ve set on the schedule. Approved leave also skips holidays when it counts days, so leave balances stay right.