Plans to manufacture vehicle components are underway to build the nation’s competitiveness in the automobile industry, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has said.
This will help establish and sustain the competitiveness in the sector over the long term while an increased local content will qualify its products as substantially made in Ghana in order to access preferential markets such as AfCFTA, duty-free and quota-free,” he added.
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Hammond was speaking at the opening of the 2023 Association of Ghana Industry (AGI) Industrial Summit and Exhibition in Accra yesterday.
The three-day summit is on the theme: “Industrialisation through sustainable and efficient supply chains.”
The platform would enable members of the association, manufacturers, international bodies and agencies, industry players, government institutions, as well as the private sector to deliberate on decisions that will enhance their operations and also provide opportunity for companies to showcase their products and services.
Hammond, who is also the Member of Parliament (NPP) for the Adansi-Asokwa Constituency, however, said that the initiative would require collaboration with industry players to set up the necessary testing centres for quality assurance, including the development of relevant national standards, advanced skills development within the industry, as well as retooling and upgrading of small-scale workshops.
A typical example is Spring and Bolts in the Asokwa Municipality of the Ashanti Region which manufactures and exports U-bolts, leaf springs and trailer suspensions to Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, as well as for the local market,” he added.
The President of AGI, Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke, said although the nation’s manufacturing sub sector had stalled by about 11 per cent, the association had identified some locally made products that were in good demand in view of their comparative advantage.
He said the association was determined to scale up its production capacity but that, he added, would not be achieved without the necessary government support.
The Managing Director of Fan Milk Ghana Plc, Yeo Ziobeieton, urged manufacturers to shift their attention towards local sourcing because it was sustainable and would also develop the economy in the long term.
I would like to call on the government, ECOWAS and AfCFTA to join hands with us to create an environment that is conducive to a sustainable and efficient supply chain. I urge us to consider policies that encourage companies that have decided to prioritise local sprucing and sustainability,” he added.
The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, said the nation was exporting $2 billion worth of goods and services to the EU.
He said that the EU was ready to sell machinery to industries at cheaper prices to enable them to produce more made-in-Ghana goods for the local and international markets.