President Akufo-Addo Commissions Toyota & Suzuki Vehicle Assembly Plant in Ghana

By assembling, and, ultimately, producing cars in Ghana, the President stressed that new and highly skilled jobs are being created, the use of foreign exchange to import secondhand vehicles will be reduced, and, at the same time, the exports of Made in Ghana cars to other African markets will earn our nation much needed foreign exchange.

“The vision is to make Ghana a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub for the automotive industry in West Africa, and we are very much on course,” he said

The President continued, “This facility has already offered some three hundred and thirty-four (334) employment opportunities to young Ghanaian graduates from our tertiary institutions across the country, notably from the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the George Grant University of Mines and Technology, and some technical and vocational institutions”.

The decision taken by Toyota Tsusho to undertake the investment, according to the President, has come at a very opportune time in Ghana’s development, as it serves as a major boost to ongoing efforts by Government to hasten the nation’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The confidence in the Ghanaian economy, expressed by a global organisation like Toyota, he said, will provide additional impetus to the realisation of Government’s post-COVID economic recovery programme, titled the one hundred billion cedi Ghana Cares Obaatampa Programme, which has been designed to revitalise and transform the Ghanaian economy in the new COVID-19-free era.

“One of the components of this Programme is for Government, in collaboration with Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), to develop an Asset-Based Vehicle Financing Scheme for public sector workers to purchase locally assembled vehicles. This Scheme will make acquisition of new vehicles more affordable,” the President said.

He assured that Government will continue to create the enabling environment to boost the profitability of the emerging automotive sector in Ghana, adding that the Ministry of Trade and Industry is working with other state institutions, such as Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), to develop locally the required raw material value chains to feed the manufacturing sector of the automobile industry.