Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated a new assembly plant for KIA vehicles in the country. The plant, which is operated by Rana Motors, will produce cars for the domestic and regional markets.
The plant has a production capacity of 30,000 vehicles per year and employs 250 people directly. It also creates 300 more indirect jobs in the local auto value chain. It is one of several assembly plants that have been established in Ghana by various vehicle companies, with a total capacity of 100,000 vehicles per year.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the investment by Rana Motors is “a strong indication of the private sector support of my government’s industrialisation agenda, and the sign of growing resilience by the private sector in these challenging times”.
He said he had instructed state institutions to prioritise locally assembled vehicles for their procurement needs, as part of the government’s commitment to patronise made-in-Ghana products.
He also said the government would soon introduce an asset-based vehicle financing scheme to stimulate demand for locally assembled vehicles, as it is done in developed economies. This would enable Ghanaians to purchase vehicles under the Ghana Automotive Development programme.
President Akufo-Addo assured the assembly plants that the government would continue to engage with them to expand their market access at the regional and continental levels.
He said the government had demonstrated its commitment by implementing a zero VAT rate on the sale of locally assembled vehicles, making them more affordable. He also said he had tasked the Finance Minister to submit a Legislative Instrument to Parliament to implement the remaining provisions of the Customs Amendment Act 2020, which would trigger the full implementation of the Ghana Automotive Development policy and attract more investment into the industry.
He expressed his confidence that Ghana would achieve its target of assembling 1.5 million vehicles per year by the end of 2023, as projected by the Association of African Automobile Manufacturers. He said this would also take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat located in Accra.
A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, said the launch of the KIA plant had added to the existing assembly plants for global brands such as VW, Suzuki, Nissan, Peugeot, Hyundai, Shinghan and SE Motor. He said the government was committed to accelerating Ghana’s industrial transformation through state-of-the-art manufacturing in key strategic industries such as agro-processing, automobile, pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments, iron and steel and petrochemical.
