Government Agencies To Be Banned From Importation Of Vehicles – Deputy Minister

Government is set to put in place plans to boost the local automobile industry, Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi has disclosed.

According to the Deputy Minister, as part of measures to achieve that aim, a ban will in due course be placed on state agencies purchasing vehicles from abroad.

“Going forward no public sector establishment will be allowed to buy cars from outside the country,” he said, adding: “This is a decision to support Ghana’s growing automobile industry.”

The Deputy Minister who doubles as Member of Parliament for New Juaben South Constituency in the Eastern Region, also disclosed that Ghana spends over one million dollars annually on the importation of vehicles.

He stressed that Ghana’s automobile hub industry when fully operational will allow for the said ban to be imposed which ripple effect will lead to a boom for the local automobile sector.

“We want to move from an economy of buying cars from outside to an economy of assembling its own cars,” he stated.

He was speaking on Friday in an interview with Kwame Obeng Sarkodie.

He observed that currently, the country has six automobile assembling plants that are doing basic Semi-Knock Downs (SKDs) except Kantanka automobile which is doing enhanced Semi-Knock Downs.

Assembling cars in the country he noted, is part of the 10-point transformation agenda promised by the government to make Ghana an industrialisation hub in the West African sub-region.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier this week opened a Toyota Assembly Plant in the industrial city of Tema.

He is reported to have disclosed that three other global automobile giants were in line to also enter the country.