Introduction of assembly plant will stimulate growth of SMEs- Alan Kyerematen

Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen has disclosed that the assembly plant of Volkswagen in Ghana is largely going to create skilled and highly paid jobs.

Speaking at the unveiling of VW assembled cars in Ghana, Mr. Kyeremanteng among other things indicated that the new assembly plant will give the economy the right environment for businesses to thrive.

“It is also going to stimulate the growth of small businesses. The auto industry is one of the most vertically integrated industries globally… and so we have an opportunity of stimulating our small and medium enterprises to become part of the supply chain of this assembly and manufacturing industry”.

Alan Kyerematen

According to him, there’s absolutely no doubt that the efforts of government with the private sector is going to help save the country’s resources. And as such the assembly plant will likely also reduce the import bill of the country.

“Ghana on the average has an import bill of over $10 billion per annum. In 2018, our import bill was $12 billion and our thirty leading imports constitute about 67% of this amount. Now out of this thirty, the most significant ones, the top three led by the importation of transport vehicles, both passenger and transport goods vehicles”.

According to the Trades Minister, the global trade in the automobile industry is in trillions, and that, it is the foreign exchange which the country earns which invariable goes a long way in stabilizing the economy.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that this effort of the government together with the private sector is going to help us save scarce foreign exchange resources. But it goes beyond that, it is also creating an opportunity for us to earn significant amount of foreign exchange”.

 In espousing the various benefits of the assembly plant, Mr. Kyerematen also expressed the possibility of a greater return of foreign exchange stabilizing the country’s local currency.

Also in attendance was President Akufo-Addo who touched on the affordability of the vehicles, intimating that it will as well be of top quality.

“I assure Volkswagen Ghana that government will continue to support in diverse ways to ensure the sustainability and profitability of this venture in Ghana. To this end, the chief of staff and the office of the President has issued recently a new directive to all ministries and agencies, and indeed to the public procurement authority the first preference to the acquisition of locally assembled vehicle when public funds are used to buy vehicles.

President Akufo-Addo also revealed that the Finance Minister in his mid-year budget review indicated that government was going to establish an automobile development support center, which will amongst other coordinate the technical processes for licensing domestic vehicle assembling and manufacturers.

“The center will also coordinate the implementation of an essential element of a viable automotive sector that is the establishment of a vehicle financing scheme which will link financial institutions to individuals and groups interested in purchasing newly assembled vehicles in Ghana”.