Tuesday saw the opening of a regional assembly facility for the manufacturing of KIA automobiles for the Ghana and West African markets. The president of the country, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
It was started by Rana Motors, provides direct employment for 250 young people, and is anticipated to generate 300 more indirect jobs to help the local automotive supply chain grow.
About 30,000 vehicles can be assembled per year by the company.
It will increase the annual production capacity of the domestic assembly facilities developed by several automakers to 100,000 automobiles.
The investment made by Rana Motors, according to President Akufo-Addo, is "a strong indication of the private sector's support of my government's industrialization agenda and a sign of growing resilience by the private sector in these challenging times."
Directive
In order to uphold the government's pledge to support items created in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo claimed to have ordered state institutions to give preference to locally assembled automobiles for relevant purchases.
However, he added, "We are aware of the fact that the state alone cannot buy sufficient numbers of vehicles to be produced from the assembly plants; it will therefore require Ghanaians to patronize these vehicles.
Financial plan
In order to give Ghanaians the chance to buy cars under the Ghana Automotive Development Initiative, the President said that the government will shortly implement an asset-based vehicle financing plan to boost demand for domestically produced automobiles, as is the case in developed nations.
The assembly plants received assurances from President Akufo-Addo that the government would continue negotiations that would result in the expansion of the market at the continental and regional levels for cars that are domestically built.
He told the public that this was done to spur demand and give them the momentum they needed to go to totally knock-down assembly, which would be backed by locally made kits and component parts that would enter the supply chain.
He said that the government had demonstrated its dedication by enacting the zero rating of VAT on the sale of locally produced automobiles, which meant there was no VAT on the sale of domestically constructed vehicles even to the end-user.