The Minister of Trade, Industry and Agribusiness, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, has hinted at plans by the government to develop an Automotive Component Manufacturing Development Policy as well as amending the existing law to incorporate electronic vehicles in a proper way to make their ownership definitive for people.

“We are creating the enabling environment for businesses in the automotive industry to thrive and we are doing this by reviewing the automotive policy that we have in Ghana.

When we did it five years ago, e-vehicles were not that popular.

So we are amending the law to include the e-vehicles, e-bicycles and e-tricycles.

We are doing this to ensure that subsidies and tax waivers are also available for them,.” she said.

Speaking during a tour of vehicle assembling plants in Tema last Tuesday, Mrs Ofosu-Agyare said the objective of the policy was to attract investment into the electric vehicle industry.

The tour took the minister to Japan Motors where she inaugurated a showroom for foton range of vehicles as well as Japan Motors’ Vehicle Assembly Plant, where she was given a tour of the various sections at the plant, including the assembly line, tester line and the unique water test facility.

Mrs Ofosu-Agyare also toured the Toyota Tsusho Manufacturing Ghana as well as the assembly site of Volkswagen (VW) assembling plant both within the Tema Free Zones enclave, where she expressed satisfaction about the production lines and assured of the government’s support.

She said the government remained resolute in developing a fully integrated automotive industry that would take advantage of the resource potential of the country to produce components and parts for manufacturing and after-sales services, recycling and the adoption of green technologies within the industrial space.

“Our key vision is to focus on technical, enhanced, and innovative technologies.

We will support local value chain development by supporting the production of raw materials for industry, both agro and non-agro” she said.

Policy

Mrs Ofosu-Agyare said the policy had successfully attracted leading automotive brands such as Volkswagen, Suzuki, Navara, Toyota and Nissan to establish their assembly plants in Ghana, adding that the establishment of these plants further enhanced the development of value supply chain across the industry.

She also assured the automotive industry of the government's support in implementing the 24-hour economy policy to stimulate industrial growth in the country.

The Minister indicated that the government through the Ghana Standard Authority was spearheading the implementation of used vehicle standards, which included the implementation of the guidelines on salvaged vehicles, stressing that government was poised to ensure that new businesses do well, while ensuring that the climate responsibilities were adhered to.

She emphasised that the government would continue to create an enabling business environment to drive investment into the Ghanaian economy, which would create massive jobs for the teeming Ghanaian youth, while ensuring an accelerated infrastructure development, technology transfer, and skills advancement into all sectors of the economy.

Opportunity

Speaking to the Daily Graphic after the tour, the President of the Automobile Association  and CEO of VW Ghana Jeffery James Oppong Peprah expressed joy at the visit by the minister.

He said apart from the technology transfer and skills advancement, the industry was creating jobs for Ghanaian youth trained in the various universities as well as Technical and Vocational institutions.

“This shows the commitment from the private sector and then we want also to see the government to keep its promise by implementing a fully-fledged auto policy for us to grow more”  and  the various vehicle assembling plants although had the capacity and were prepared to produce in a three-shift 10 000 vehicles a year, were all producing far below capacity.

He also stressed the need for an Automotive Component Manufacturing Development Policy, stressing that Ghana had the raw materials for the production of vehicle components locally.