Clement Boateng, the co-chairman of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, has urged its members to strategically position themselves to benefit from the establishment of assembly plants in the country.
According to him, negotiations are ongoing between the association and some of the vehicle assembly plants in the country, a move which will create opportunities for local spare parts dealers.
“As I’m talking to you now, those assembly plants which will start assembling vehicles here have entered into negotiations with the association to try as much as possible to partner them to try the production of small spare parts for which raw materials can be found in the country. Every country within Africa wants industrialization, so if our President has facilitated the coming to Ghana automobile assemblers, then we have to take advantage of the opportunities that will come up”.
He further intimated that, contrary to popular sentiments, he reckons it will augur well for the Association and spare parts dealers at large as there has been testament of it.
“I don’t share in the idea that the assembling of cars here will throw some of us out of work. Because even currently some of the car agents here come to us to buy parts for their cars. So their arrival will only open up more opportunities for us to enter into production and thereby create more jobs for our youth”.
Clement Boateng
Currently, Ghana has three assembling plants, Volkswagen, Kantanka and the latest project by Japan Motors to assemble Nissan vehicles.
Already, Toyota and Suzuki have formally committed to set up car assembly plants in Ghana. This was after Nissan and Sinotruk expressed interest in Ghana, with Volkswagen already launching some locally made cars.
In 2018 Ghana signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nissan Group of Africa for the establishment of automotive manufacturing industry in Ghana, which will make Ghana the hub for sales and marketing of Nissan in West Africa.
President Akufo-Addo, after the signing of the MoU, said the vehicle assembly plant will become operational in 2019. But the project was finally launched on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.
Mr. Jeffery Oppong Peprah, 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”.
“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.”
Mr. Jeffery Oppong Peprah
