Chief Executive of Volkswagen (VW) Ghana has said the Ghana Automotive Development Policy when fully operational has the potential to maximize the car industry in the country.

The comprehensive policy is expected to offer a package of incentives and policy measures towards supporting the establishment of an automotive assembly and component manufacturing industry.

According to Mr Jeffery Oppong Peprah, elements of the policy such as vehicle financing of locally assembled and produced vehicles will offer some 300,000 new cars annually to the Ghanaian market.

“With a population of about 30 million people, Ghana has the potential for a maximum annual market of 300,000 new cars once the policy has been fully implemented and elements such a vehicle financing are in place,” Mr Oppong Peprah said this at the unveiling ceremony of the first locally assembled car on August 3, 2020 in Accra.

The Government of Ghana, as part of its transformational agenda has identified Vehicle Assembly and Automotive Components Manufacturing as a strategic anchor industry to be facilitated and supported as part of a ten point plan for industrial development.

As a result of this, Ghana is attracting investment in vehicle assembly from leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and investment partners with positive projections of spill-overs into local manufacturing.

Additionally, the Government of Ghana and Volkswagen (VW) in 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a vehicle assembly plant in Ghana during German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s official visit to Ghana.

The president in his State of the Nation Address on February 21, 2020, announced VW was due to start production by the end of April 2020.

Earlier in June this year, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, visited the assembling plant of Volkswagen (VW) at the North Industrial Area in Accra, to have first-hand insight regarding the ongoing work of the automobile giant.

With the Chinese company, Sinotruk, already engaged in the assembly of trucks in Ghana, the President said he was hopeful that other global automobile companies, which have indicated their preparedness to set-up shop in Ghana, will soon follow the remarkable, pioneering example of Volkswagen.

The establishment of these assembling plants, is to create thousands of jobs for Ghanaians, particularly mechanical and electrical engineers.