President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned a local assembly plant in Ghana for the production of KIA vehicles to serve the Ghana and West Africa markets. The plant, established by Rana Motors, will create direct employment for 250 young people and is expected to generate an additional 300 indirect jobs. With the capacity to assemble 30,000 vehicles annually, the plant brings the total capacity of domestically established assembly plants by various vehicle companies to 100,000 vehicles per year.
President Akufo-Addo has directed state institutions to prioritize domestically assembled vehicles for relevant procurements to promote the patronage of locally made products. He also announced that the government would soon launch an asset-based vehicle financing scheme to stimulate demand for domestically assembled vehicles, as is the case in developed economies, and to provide Ghanaians with the opportunity to purchase vehicles under the Ghana Automotive Development program. The government has implemented the zero rating of VAT on the sale of domestically assembled vehicles to make them more affordable to consumers.
The President has assured assembly plants of continued discussions aimed at expanding the market for domestically assembled vehicles at the regional and continental levels, which will help drive demand and create the necessary traction for the transition to a completely knock-down assembly. The government is committed to achieving the target of assembling 1.5 million vehicles per year by the end of 2023 as projected by the Association of African Automobile Manufacturers.
The commissioning of the KIA plant has added to the already established assembly plants for the commercial production of global brands such as VW, Suzuki, Nissan, Peugeot, Hyundai, Shinghan, and SE Motor. The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, stated that the government is committed to fast-tracking Ghana’s industrial transformation in key strategic industries such as agro-processing, automobile, pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments, iron and steel, and petrochemical.