MOTOR VEHICLE imports led the list of items that dominated Ghana’s imports in 2019 with payments totalling $1.34 billion.
Of these, wagons and racing cars cost $881 million while commercial cargo vehicles cost $441 million.
This was contained in the top 10 customs importation statistics conducted by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and captured by the Economy Trend.
Coming immediately after motor vehicles was the import of clinker which included Portland cement, slag cement, super sulphate cement and hydraulic cement.
This was followed by petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals other than crude preparation had amount of $ 236 million.
An amount of $217 million was used in the importation of railway or tramway materials such as sleepers while $203 million went into the import of medications consisting of mixed and unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses.
Frozen fish came up next with an importation cost of $202 million followed by polymers or ethylene in primary forms and also insecticides which appeared thereafter costing $164 million and $154 million respectively.
The high vehicle imports inform government’s initiative to promote local manufacturing and encourage foreign direct investment in the automobile sector to help curb the importation of vehicles with its attendant negative implications on the cedi and the economy.
Again, government’s automobile development policy seeks to create an industry with Ghana as an export hub. This has seen Sinotruck and VW established and now Suzuki, Toyota and Nissan just about to start.
FROM Vincent Kubi, Tema