Government of Ghana is going to establish an Automobile Industry Development Support Centre, which will, amongst others, co-ordinate the technical processes for licensing domestic vehicle assemblers and manufacturers, and monitor, also, their compliance with industry regulations and standards.
The Centre will also co-ordinate the implementation of an essential element of a viable automotive sector, that is the establishment of a Vehicle Financing Scheme, which will link financial institutions to individuals and groups interested in purchasing newly-assembled vehicles in Ghana.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the Centre will carry out an Automotive Skills Enhancement Programme to provide requisite skills for the various categories of the value chain of the automobile industry.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said this when he unveiled the first Volkswagen(VW) vehicle to be assembled in Ghana, following the establishment of the VW assembly plant in Ghana.
Volkswagen is a German car-maker, and In March this year, officials of the company took some Ghanaian government officials around the plant in the capital Accra.
A planned official launch of the plant was called off due to the outbreak of the coronavirus at the time but it hasn’t stopped work from going on.
This would be the first phase of the company’s operations in the West African nation, as it plans to expand across Africa.
The car has advanced features like panoramic view, digital dashboard, sensors among others including a 2.0 engine.
Volkswagen already builds vehicles in Kenya and recently opened another car plant in Rwanda as part of its expansion project in East Africa.
The Rwanda project was the first of such plants in the East African nation expected to lead the building of up to 5,000 cars per year.
Ghana has said it was prepared to offer car making companies Volkswagen and Nissan tax breaks of up to 10 years.
The move to offer such car makers tax breaks is considered an incentive enough to get them to execute their plans.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
