Government will soon commission four new vehicle assembling plants, a move that will cement the country’s position as a car-manufacturing hub in West Africa.

According to a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, Ghana’s Home Grown Automotive policy which is among the best on the African continent has enabled this achievement.

Presently, Volkswagen and Toyota have established car assembling plants in the country.

Speaking at the ongoing Ghana Economic Forum organised by the Business and Financial Times, she said “our home grown automotive policy is among the best on the continent. The evidence is this; we have two major vehicle assembling plants in Ghana by major brands and four more in the pipeline to be commissioned soon.”

“The development of the policy is premise on the fact that the automotive assembling and component manufacturing industry is universally recognised as key strategic sector for stimulating multiply effects in terms of industrial transformation and as a powerful driver of employment, foreign investments, innovation and economic growth. One key theme that stands out of our auto policy in respect of homegrown characteristics is its focus on component manufacturing which is designed to ensure that a local supply chain and parts are manufactured for the auto industry”, she pointed out.

According to Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, despite the odds the government has achieved its agenda of ensuring the automotive industry plays an important role in the economy, saying “when we started signaling our quest for the automotive industry, we have not been deterred by the doubts and mediocrity, fear and lack of sense of purpose, nor have we been derailed by pessimism and the shout on the roofs tops by naysayers.”

“I have however been encouraged by a personal conviction that we have as a country with a common purpose to achieve unimaginable feat and as a beacon of Africa lead development agenda for the continent”, she stressed

“Taking cognisance of the fact that all these policies are highly driven by investments, the Ministry [Trade and Industry] is currently coordinating business regulatory reforms programmes to improve the business environment for doing business in Ghana. The programme has been highly underpinned by an aggressive digitization drive. Two key components follow a direct digitization approach with emphasis on providing easy access to policy and process regulations.”

The two programmes are e-register of business registration and public consultation portal – an interaction web portal.