Ghana’s public holidays are set by the Public Holidays Act 1989 (PNDCL 220), as amended — most significantly by the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019, which reshuffled the national days and is why older lists are wrong.
The holidays
Fixed dates
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year’s Day |
| 7 January | Constitution Day |
| 6 March | Independence Day |
| 1 May | May Day |
| 4 August | Founders’ Day |
| 21 September | Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day |
| 25 December | Christmas Day |
| 26 December | Boxing Day |
Moveable
- Good Friday and Easter Monday
- Eid-ul-Fitr, at the end of Ramadan
- Eid-ul-Adha, the festival of sacrifice
- Farmers’ Day, the first Friday in December
The two Eids follow the lunar calendar and are declared by the government shortly beforehand, so the exact date shifts each year and is confirmed rather than scheduled.
The 2019 reshuffle
This trips up a lot of published lists:
- 4 August became Founders’ Day, marking the founding of the United Gold Coast Convention in 1947.
- 21 September became Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, honouring Ghana’s first President on his birthday. It used to be called Founders’ Day, which is why the two are so often confused.
- 1 July, Republic Day, stopped being a statutory holiday and is now commemorative only. It is still marked. It is not a day off.
Republic Day is not a holiday
Several calendar apps and international holiday lists still show 1 July as a Ghanaian public holiday. Offices are open. Do not plan around it.
This year and next
- 01 January 2026 — New Year's Day
- 07 January 2026 — Constitution Day
- 09 January 2026 — Public Holiday
- 06 March 2026 — Independence Day
- 20 March 2026 — Eid-ul-Fitr
- 21 March 2026 — Shaqq Day
- 03 April 2026 — Good Friday
- 06 April 2026 — Easter Monday
- 01 May 2026 — Labour Day
- 27 May 2026 — Eid-ul-Adha
- 03 July 2026 — Public Holiday
- 04 August 2026 — Founders' Day
- 21 September 2026 — Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day
- 04 December 2026 — Farmers' Day
- 25 December 2026 — Christmas Day
- 26 December 2026 — Boxing Day
- 01 January 2027 — New Year's Day
- 07 January 2027 — Constitution Day
- 06 March 2027 — Independence Day
- 09 March 2027 — Eid-ul-Fitr (estimated)
- 10 March 2027 — Shaqq Day (estimated)
- 26 March 2027 — Good Friday
- 29 March 2027 — Easter Monday
- 01 May 2027 — Labour Day
- 16 May 2027 — Eid-ul-Adha (estimated)
- 04 August 2027 — Founders' Day
- 21 September 2027 — Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day
- 03 December 2027 — Farmers' Day
- 25 December 2027 — Christmas Day
- 26 December 2027 — Boxing Day
Generated from the site’s holiday calendar, which applies the 2019 amendments. Eid dates are computed and may shift by a day when officially declared.
What actually closes
Closed: government offices, banks, most corporate offices, schools, the GRA, the NIA, Ghana Immigration, the DVLA.
Open: markets, chop bars, trotros, most shops, pharmacies, hospitals, and a great deal of Accra generally. Ghana’s informal economy does not take the day off, and Makola on a public holiday is busier than a Tuesday.
Traffic: lighter on the day, considerably heavier the evening before and the evening after, particularly around Christmas and Easter when much of Accra travels to hometowns.
If a holiday falls on a weekend
Where a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday is commonly declared a holiday by executive instrument. This is announced rather than automatic, so watch for the declaration.
Planning around them
Do not schedule anything at a government office in the week around a major holiday. Backlogs before, and backlogs after.
December is effectively short. Between Farmers’ Day, Christmas, Boxing Day and the general drift toward the new year, the last three weeks of December are not a good time to start a bureaucratic process.
Easter and Christmas empty Accra. Many people travel to Kumasi, the Volta Region, the north, or the coast. Book transport early; the STC and the trotro stations are chaotic.
Ramadan and the Eids matter a great deal in Accra’s zongo communities — Nima, Mamobi, Newtown — and increasingly across the city. Eid-ul-Fitr in particular is a large public celebration.
Your leave is separate
Public holidays do not count against your annual leave entitlement of 15 working days under the Labour Act.