This significant increase in assemblers will broaden the choice of made-in-Ghana vehicles to 13 brands of automobiles.

According to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Ghana Automotive Development Programme under the Strategic Anchor Industries Initiative, continues to attract investment from global vehicle brands.

In April 2022, Nissan commissioned an assembly plant in Tema in the Greater Accra Region.

Currently, it is the largest automotive assembly plant in Ghana, with the capacity to assemble over 31,000 vehicles per annum.

The plant will also produce Peugeot brand of vehicles and these locally assembled vehicles will be marketed domestically and to neighbouring countries.

This will bring the number of global brands assembling vehicles under the Ghana Automotive Development Programme to five namely, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, Sinotruck, Nissan, and Peugeot in addition to Ghana’s own Kantanka.

As part of measures to support the programme, MrOfori-Atta said the enabling Act provided for an increase in the Customs duties to 35 per cent of the CIF value on vehicles in the same category as those being assembled locally and the ban on import of salvaged vehicles and vehicles over 10 years of age.

The government, he said, would pass regulations to implement these measures before the end of the year.

“Additionally, to make the prices of these vehicles competitive, supplies of these vehicles will be zero-rated for VAT purposes until December 2023”, he explained.

Mr Ofori-Atta continued that automotive assembly opens up opportunities to localise the production and supply of components and parts, including spare parts for the automotive industry.

“In this regard, the government is drafting a Component Manufacturing Policy for implementation,” he added.