Shinkichi Izumi, the Managing Director of the Nissan Group of Africa, has expressed the company’s preparedness to meet demands of locally assembled cars in the country.

According to him, the full implementation of Ghana’s Automotive Development Policy will principally lead to an increase in demand for brand-new vehicles, a development which carmakers with assembling plants in the country will welcome.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Shinkichi Izumi, noted that, with his outfit’s inclination to ensure delivery of locally assembled cars, it will gradually lead to the favorable positioning of brand new cars against used ones.

“In general we are looking at the new cars to used cars ratio in Ghana which is 1:9 currently. But we see that with the effective implementation of the Automotive Policy, there will be a migration from used cars especially ones that are older than 10 years, to new cars.

“The increased demand is going to be satisfied with locally produced models. And that is the direction we are working towards.”

As part of efforts to advance Ghana’s automotive industry to serve both native and the African market, the launch of Japan Motors new Nissan assembling plant in the country, propelled the General Manager responsible for Sales and Marketing at Japan Motors, Amine Kabarra, to extensively address the issue of pricing, noting that it will largely be informed by policies drawn by government.

“In terms of pricing, I think obviously, it would be impacted by the general automotive policy that the government is intending to implement. So. all new cars that will be imported directly from other factories around the world will be treated with high duty, else those who are imported to be built locally here will have a lot of reductions and even zero taxes on them.”

Earlier this year, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, revealed that, Ghana was well on its way to become the centre for automobile manufacturing on the African continent.

With this, Ghana will leverage on its ongoing efforts to improve the automobile industry to ensure that the country is well placed to reap the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“It is envisaged that the development of the automobile industry in Ghana, which is one of the new Strategic Anchor Initiatives being promoted under the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Industrial Transformation Agenda, will constitute a significant step towards import substitution and enhancing exports, particularly within the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Ghana is well positioned to become the new automobile manufacturing hub in Africa.”

Currently, Toyota and Suzuki have formally committed to set up car assembling plants in Ghana. This was after Nissan and Sinotruk also expressed an interest in Ghana, with Volkswagen already launching some locally made cars.

Ghana presently has three assembling plants, which comprises of Volkswagen, Kantanka Japan Motors’ assembly of Nissan vehicles.

According to government, the move is aimed at making Ghana the hub for Automotive Industry in the West African sub-region.