President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated Rana Motors’ state-of-the-art vehicle assembly plant at Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality.
The facility occupies 13.5 hectares of land and has an operational capacity of 30,000 cars annually, expected to rise to 70,000 when it operates at full capacity.
The assembly plant is a landmark achievement that marks the roll-out of the first generation of KIA vehicles proudly Assembled-in-Ghana.
It, therefore, marks a major leap forward for Rana Motors with respect to the company’s transformation from a licensed KIA dealership into a bona-fide assembler of KIA vehicles.
In his address, President Akufo-Addo iterated that the move is in line with government’s Ghana Automotive Development Policy which sought to make the country a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub and also demonstrate the resilient and proactive effort of the private sector to grow the automobile industry.
“This investment by Rana Motors is a strong indication of the private sector’s support for the industrialisation agenda,” he said, adding that government will continue to create an enabling environment for businesses, especially those under the 10 strategic anchor industries to aid the country’s transformation.
“I want to assure you all private sector players of that government will continue to introduce sector-specific policy intervention and an enabling environment for businesses to survive and strive,” he assured.
The president also commended Rana Motors’ effort, noting that to stimulate demands for domestically assembled vehicles, government was developing an assets-based vehicle financing scheme to enable Ghanaians to purchase locally assembled cars and that he had directed state institutions to purchase locally-assembled cars.
“We are, however, mindful of the fact that the state alone cannot purchase the sufficient numbers of vehicles to be produced from our assembly plants and will thus require Ghanaians also patronise these vehicles”, he added.
Government had already waived Value Added Tax (VAT) on the sale of domestically-assembled vehicles to increase patronage.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Rana Motors, Essam Odaymat, expressed gratitude to the president attributing the stride to the Odaymat family’s resilience and also the hard work and dedication of the staff.
“This RM Assembly Plant as we choose to call it, can best be described as a combination of Korean engineering technology and Ghanaian dedication, capabilities, and passion.
This project has further strengthened my belief in our ability as Ghanaians to excel, to achieve and to reach a place in the near future where we are completely self-reliant,” the Chief Operating Officer, Kassem Odaymat added.
He is confident the existence of the plant in Amasaman will strengthen the socio-economic lives of the people, particularly those who get the opportunity to work with the company.
The facility has already offered direct employment for 50 young folks and is hoping to indirectly engage 300 more people.
“If harnessed properly, assemblers such as Rana Motors and emerging component manufacturing in Ghana can easily connect to regional markets and supply chains in West Africa and across Africa under ECOWAS and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
This will open up very significant and sustainable opportunities for job seekers, distributors, suppliers, small-scale industries as well as repair and maintenance service providers nationwide, as is the case in other modern hubs of the African Auto Industry represented mainly by Morocco, Egypt and South Africa but now featuring Ghana, prominently as the new kid on the block,” Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond has added.
Rana Motors joins other global car brands including Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Sinotruck, and Ghana’s indigenous brand Kantanka, who have already established assembly plants in the country.
