President Akufo-Addo
Car manufacturing company VW, which has started building its plant at the North Industrial Area, Accra, is due to start production by the end of April, this year.
Sinotruk, on the other hand, has begun assembling its trucks whilst Toyota is scheduled to start the assembly of vehicles in Tema in the last quarter of this year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed.
He made this disclosure yesterday in Parliament when he delivered his 4th State of the Nation Address.
Having launched the Ghana Automotive Development Policy in August last year, the President told Parliament that it has so far attracted investments and commercial interests from some very big players, including Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, Sinotruk and Suzuki.
Booming entrepreneurs
In addition to the country’s industrialisation drive, the President noted that business resource centres being built, saying that is helping the country to unearth some exciting, young entrepreneurs.
“Thirty-seven of them have been completed. These centres are one-stop enterprise support centres that provide full range of business development services, investment facilitation and information services to entrepreneurs and business enterprises at the district level,” he added.
AfCFTA
Having won the bid to host the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Accra, government has provided a permanent office building to host the secretariat.
Also with the appointment of the Secretary-General in Addis Ababa two weeks ago, at the recent AU Summit, the office is expected to become operational by the end of next month.
“We extend our warm congratulations to the first Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, the young South African, and assure him that we will give him our fullest co-operation to ensure he succeeds,” he added.
Bauxite industry
President Akufo-Addo added that Ghana now finds herself in a position to exploit her large bauxite, manganese and iron ore deposits, which will enable the country to establish an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry and an iron and steel industry.
“The Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Aluminium Development Corporation and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Corporation have been established by law as the vehicles for this exploitation.
“The processes are underway for the selection, this year, of joint venture partners for the development of the full value chain of these two multi-billion-dollar industries, which will give a tremendous boost to Ghanaian industrialisation,” he added.
1D1F
Touching on One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative, President Akufo-Addo told Parliament that a total 181 projects, spread across the 112 districts, are currently at various stages of implementation.
Additionally, 58 companies are already in operation; 26 projects are currently under construction; 58 AfDB small-scale projects are ready for sod cutting in the early part of this year; and 26 pipeline projects are ready to commence implementation by the first quarter of this year.
“EXIM Bank, last month, signed a one hundred million United States dollar facility with Credit Suisse to help complete, this year, 20 of the export-related factories.
“It is envisaged that the 1D1F initiative will generate a total of 228,866 direct and indirect jobs,” he added.
“Struggling, existing businesses are also being revived and expanded under the 1D1F scheme. There is nothing contrary to the philosophy that underpins 1D1F if an already existing enterprise is helped to expand and employ more people,” he added.
