Volkswagen (VW) Ghana has already sold about 1,000 locally assembled cars since it started operations barely two years ago.
VW Ghana was the first auto company to be registered under the Ghana Automotive Development Programme (GADP), and launched its commercial activities in August 2020 to assemble various kinds of the world-class VW German automobile company brand of vehicles in the country.
The company started operations with five different brands of salon and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) including Polo, Tiguan, Passat, Teramont, Amarok, and the Caddy brands.
In response to the significant reception and buy-in of the Ghanaian public, the company has officially launched its sixth locally assembled vehicle brand, the T-Cross compact SUV.
Speaking at the launch of this sixth brand, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, emphasised that with this statistic, VW is the first company to be registered under the GADP, giving the trade ministry some optimism that Ghana is on course to achieving its intended objective of becoming an automobile hub in the West Africa region.
She is urging banks and all other financial institutions to partner with local assembling businesses to develop mortgages or flexible payment models like is done in other parts of the world to increase patronage for the industry to thrive.
“Government, aside from the directive on the procurement of locally assembled vehicles by its agencies, is also putting in place measures that would create the platform for Ghanaians to procure locally assembled vehicles under flexible conditions as it exists in other economies to increase the demand for new vehicles and help renew the national vehicle fleet.
“I take this opportunity to encourage the banks and financial institutions to also engage auto dealerships to develop attractive vehicle financing packages for their customers to increase patronage and bring competition to the vehicle financing industry.
“The ministry will, however, continue to dialogue with stakeholders within the industry to ensure the smooth implementation of the GADP,” she said.
Madam Asiamah-Adjei added that to enable the creation of a complete auto hub, government is also developing a comprehensive component and supplier development programme framework to attract investments from Original Equipment Component Manufacturers (OEM).
An original equipment manufacturer is generally perceived as a company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer.
She emphasised that the attraction of other global OEMs into the vehicle assembly space would create the conditions necessary to attract these component manufacturers who move with these OEMs to feed into the supply chain.
“This would help achieve the objective of making Ghana a vehicle manufacturing hub on the continent, and secure markets in both the sub-regional and continental markets for locally assembled vehicles,” she concluded.
Currently, there are five registered automobile assemblers under the GADP, attesting to the positive response received from industry players toward vehicle assembly. And the trade ministry says in the coming months, other OEMs would be completing the establishment of their assembly plants and would join the five.
About the all-new T-Cross
The Volkswagen T-Cross is a subcompact crossover SUV, and it is the smallest SUV model from Volkswagen. The small SUV is surprisingly spacious inside and is equally generous with the amount of standard kit it comes with, making it an easy-to-drive and practical family car with a high seating position.
It was designed with trendline, comfortline, and highline specifications. It has an engine size of 1.6MPI and a six-speed auto transmission.
