FINANCE MINISTER STATES 3 NEW ASSEMBLY PLANTS TO BUILD 6 GLOBAL BRANDS

This year, three further plants will begin to produce six global brands; Hyundai, Isuzu, Honda, KIA, Changan, and ZX Auto.

In addition to this, the current Toyota assembly plant, which started commercial production in 2021, will also start assembling Suzuki vehicles this year.

This ultimately means that the choice of vehicles that are made in Ghana will be broadened to a total of 13 different brands.

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.

Nissan commissioned a new plant in April 2022 in greater Accra, at present its the largest automotive assembly plant in Ghana, having the capacity to build over 31,000 a year.

The same plant is set to produce Peugeot vehicles to be marketed in the domestic sector to neighbouring countires.

This brings the amount of brands assembled under the Ghana Automotive Development Programme to five namely, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, Sinotruck, Nissan, Peugeot and Kantanka, Ghanaian local brand.

Certain measures have been put in place to support the programme, such as the enabling Act provided for an increase in the Customs duties to 35% 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, says Mr Ofori-Atta, as well as other things in the pipeline for the government to implement throughout this 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 elaborated on the matter, stating that assembling locally also opens up the avenue of producing/supplying components and parts, including spare parts for the automotive industry.

“In this regard, Government is drafting a Component Manufacturing Policy for implementation”, he stated.

Source: Myjoyonline, August 2022