German Ambassador to Ghana, Christoph Retzlaff has confirmed that the German car manufacturer, Volkswagen (VW) will from early 2020 commence the first phase for the establishment of an assembling car plant in Ghana.
According to him, the second phase of the assembling plant will also be established at new premises either in Tema or Takoradi in 2021.
Ambassador Retzlaff made this announcement in a post via his official Twitter; @GermanAmbGhana on November 28 after the just ended German Ghanaian Business Council in Berlin.
“Volkswagen will come to Ghana very soon; VW CEO Africa Thomas Schäfer. Start of phase 1 VW car assembling in Ghana will be early 2020. Second phase with new premises in 2021. Probably in Tema or Takoradi,” Ambassador Retzlaff tweeted.
Earlier last year, VW signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Ghana to begin the process of establishing an assembling plant in the country to serve the West African sub-regional market.
The assembling plant is expected to produce about 5,000 units of vehicles every year with plans to increase production depending on the market demand.
Managing Director of VW Africa, Thomas Schaefer said; “We are looking at an installed capacity of 5000 units per year but hoping to expand as the demand increases. We chose Ghana a year ago after we had a discussion with the government of Ghana and we believe that the country is an ideal spot to start with” he said.
According to Schaefer, there is a potential of Ghana importing about 300,000 cars per year and creating jobs for the youth.