The initiative, when taken off, is aimed at making Ghanaians to own new cars from the VW brands and create the culture of buying new cars at flexible payment terms and at a cheaper interest rate rather than buying imported used cars which most often lead such owners to spend more money on maintenance than if they were to buy a new vehicle here.

The Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) of Volkswagen Ghana , Mr Jeffrey Opppng Peprah, who disclosed these in Accra on Friday , said the country was proud to assemble VW cars in Ghana and, therefore, it was time

Ghanaians had the benefit of acquiring world class VW brands currently being assemble right here in Ghana .

Mr Oppong Peprah was speaking at the unveiling ceremo­ny of a newly launched Touareg 3.0 turbo model on the Ghanaian automobile market.

The Touareg is the latest to be unveiled in addition to models such as VW Passat, Tiguan, Tera­mont, Polo and Amarok models, all assembled in the country , the same which can be found in anywhere around the world.

The Volkswagen Ghana is the Volkswagen’s fifth assembly loca­tion to Sub-Saharan Africa beside South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.

Speaking after the unveiling in an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Times Mr Peprah stat­ed that Ghana had come a long way to continue to import used cars whose origin were sometime difficult to determine whether these were salvaged or accident cars.

“It is against the backdrop that Volkswagen Ghana has come to fill the gap for Ghanaians to buy new cars locally assembled, thereby relieving them of the fortunes one has to spend paying import duties and other expens­es associated with importation of new or used cars when one can walk into a VW showroom in Ghana and walk away with a “Tear Rubber” new Volkswagen brand,” he said.

Established in 2018, the CEO disclosed that Volkswagen Ghana was confronted initially with a few challenges, especially the COVID -19 disease outbreak across the work that affected the company’s smooth take-off in Ghana, but was able to start actual operation in 2022.

“We have assembled a total of 322 VW vehicles including its latest Touareg model,” he said.

Out of the number, Mr Peprah disclosed that 220 locally assembled VW Cars were exported to Cote D’Ivoire and used for the AFCON games while others sold on the Rwanda market.

While applauding the gov­ernment for creating a conducive environment for investment to drive its industrialisation policy, he urged the government to sup­port vehicle assembling plants to increase production by streamlin­ing the importation of used cars