Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Ghana, Jeffery Peprah, has highlighted the six local vehicle assembly companies’ competency to supply the country’s vehicle needs.
He noted that a total of 120,000 vehicles were imported into the country.
Out of this figure, 6,000 were new vehicles, he said during an interview on Citi FM.
The six automobile assemblers registered under the Ghana Automotive Development Programme (GADP), including Volkswagen, Toyota, Rana Motors, Sinotruck, Japan Motors, and Kantanka, have urged the government to limit the importation of second-hand vehicles to boost the local industry.
“Out of the new 6,000, 4,700 were assembled locally and this is coming from six different automobile assembling companies,” Jeffery Peprah said.
According to him, the local vehicle assembly companies have 140,000 to 141,000 units that can be produced locally.
Mr. Peprah defended the pricing of locally assembled vehicles, stating that the price reflects the value of each purchase. He outlined several benefits that buyers of locally assembled vehicles would enjoy compared to purchasing imported second-hand vehicles.
“Looking at the pricing perspective at the moment, our new vehicles locally assembled are very competitive and as well as the things that come with them, especially you have a vehicle locally made with a five-year warrant, which is a very potential thing for the market here. Buyers have a warrant for servicing for five years and that is a big plus for the buyers”.
Mr. Peprah stated that implementing some restrictions on imports would incentivize local companies to expand their production capacities.
“If we are able to have a locally assembled product and with our capacities growing and once we have the numbers too growing, we will quickly move into more production phase where we will manufacture more products,” he added.