President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced plans by the government to introduce a vehicle financing scheme to support Ghanaians to purchase brand new made-in-Ghana vehicles.
The decision, according to the President, would enable Ghanaians to purchase locally produced cars to reduce the importation of vehicles which cost the nation about US$1.5 billion annually.
Inaugurating a vehicle assembling plant at Tema in the Greater Accra Region to produce Nissan cars, President Akufo-Addo said very soon, brands like Hyundai, Kia and Isuzu would join Toyota and Volkswagen to assemble vehicles in Ghana.
He said the global car manufacturing brands found Ghana an attractive destination to invest due to the government’s automotive policy which sought to offer incentives for the companies.
To create significant employment in the automotive sector, he said the government had planned to develop local production of components and parts for the industry.
The development of the integrated bauxite and aluminum, iron and steel industry would provide the required raw materials to feed the components manufacturing industry, he added.
The components and parts manufacturing industry, according to the President, “will lead to harnessing the capacity of local value chain actors particularly technicians operating in AbosseyOkai, Suame Magazine and other hubs across the country to play critical roles in the components manufacturing and supply development programme.”
President Akufo-Addo noted that the decision of Nissan Motor Corporation to open an assembly plant in Ghana attested to the confidence investors had in the Ghanaian economy, despite the current economic difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The development of Ghana’s automotive industry is one of the new strategic anchor industries being promoted by government under its industrial transformation agenda to diversify the Ghanaian economy,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo expressed the government’s commitment to invest resources to enhance the productive capacity of the private sector.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, said Ghana was currently hosting five of the six leading automobile companies in the world due to the confidence in the Ghanaian economy.
He said the decision of the leading vehicle manufacturing brands to invest in Ghana would attract confidence and foreign investments in other sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
The automotive industry, he said, would develop small and medium scale enterprises that would operate along the supply chain.
“We all know that every car is made up of thousands of parts,” he said and added that a fully-fledged auto industry in Ghana would have significant impact on the development of the economy.
BY YAW KYEI
