President Nana Akufo-Addo
Renault and Toyota are conducting feasibility studies to establish assembly plants in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo has announced.
Three major international automobile manufacturers- Volkswagen, Nissan and Sinotruck- have already signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with government to establish assembling plants in Ghana.
Government is currently focused on the car assembling sector owing to the development.
“We will outdoor, in March, the National Automotive Policy spelling out the terms, conditions and incentive package for participating in Ghana’s new automobile industry, which will also apply to indigenous car assembly companies.”
Noting that the local textile industry has been struggling for years, he said: “We have decided to give it a major stimulus to help put it on a strong footing. The local textile industry has, therefore, been granted a zero-rated VAT on the supply of locally-made textiles for a period of three years.”
“We have put in place a tax stamp regime for both locally manufactured and imported textiles to address the challenge of pirated designs and logos in the textile trade. The Tema Port has been designated as a Single-Entry Corridor for the importation of textile prints, with a textile taskforce in place to ensure effective compliance, and reduce, if not eliminate, smuggling of imported textiles. A new textile import management system has been instituted also to control import of textiles.”
35 new factories
He said under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) policy, 79 factories are at various stages of operation or construction, while another 35 are going through credit appraisal.
“There is a lot of activity ongoing under the scheme and it has awoken the interest of young people to go into manufacturing business.”
50 small-scale factories
President Akufo Addo added that under the Rural Enterprises Programme funded by the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, 50 small-scale processing factories would be established by the end of the year in 50 districts across the country, particularly in areas where there is evidence of significant post-harvest losses.
“These will be owned and managed by organized youth groups, with technical support from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.”
By Samuel Boadi