Chief Executive Officer of Universal Motors, distributors of VW, speaking on the sidelines of the unveiling ceremony of some of the first vehicles produced by VW in Ghana said that, contrary to popular perception, the company is not in the country to “spoil people’s business.”
According to Mr Jeffery Oppong Peperah, Volkswagen will embrace other stakeholders in the sector and ensure that the required skills they need to thrive in the evolving industry are made available to them.
“VW is a peoples’ car. So we don’t come in to spoil people’s business. We are going to onboard people. All these second hand operators that have a lot of things going on, we are not going to take their business. We are open to work with them and we’re going to transfer technology and also knowledge to them.
“We are talking to stakeholders which are going to fund for trainings and all these things so these second-hand dealers, they could be trained and become also retailers for Volkswagen and sell the cars as we see it in Europe or any other developing country.”
CEO of Universal Motors, Mr Jeffery Oppong Peperah.
His comments come to assuage the worries and uncertain future of vehicle importers, especially second hand dealers. There has been constant concerns emanating from their camp regarding how their livelihoods may be cut off with the implementation of the Automotive Development Policy by government, which aims at providing the necessary framework for the assembly and manufacturing of vehicles in Ghana.
Brand new vehicle importers have also been seeking some as they say the COVID-19 has had a bad toll on their operations.
Also, the CEO of Universal Motors indicated that the prices of the unveiled vehicles have been competitively priced to suit the market.
“The ones we have here in Europe you could buy it for about 37000 Euros but here we are selling it at 32/34{thousand Euros} because it has got a different rate.
This amount, according to Mr Peperah is almost a 12 percent slash “compared to how the vehicles are sold in Europe.”
Speaking at the unveiling event, President Akufo-Addo pointed out that he is optimistic about the future of the automobile industry in the country.
“All these measures are situated in the context of the Ghana Automotive Policy. With the Chinese company Sinotruck already engaged in the assembly of trucks in Ghana, I’m 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 Chairman and managing director of Volkswagen (VW) South Africa who is also in charge of VW’s presence in sub-Saharan Africa has praised Ghana’s efforts in establishing an automotive industry.
According to Thomas Schaefer, President Akufo-Addo “wanted it,” and “made it happen.”
