Automotive giants, Volkswagen (VW), has launched its first batch of cars assembled in Ghana following a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Ghana and Volkswagen in 2018 to establish a vehicle assembly plant in the country.

The investment comes in the framework of the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA), which was launched under Germany’s G20 Chairmanship in Berlin in June 2017. The CwA aims to bring more private investment from the G20 countries to the African partner countries, amongst which Ghana is a frontrunner.

“The African partners pledged to reform their business frameworks to make them more attractive for private investment. With the new Automotive Policy Ghana has fulfilled its pledge and paved the way for this investment. The highly globalized automotive industry has now integrated Ghana into its global value chain, which will lead to more manufacturers as well as suppliers eyeing Ghana as an investment destination,” a statement from the company stated.

It also noted that the high-tech industry of car making will bring investment, skills and jobs to Ghana and broaden its industrial base and that the investment is another corner stone of the strong and deep partnership between Germany and Ghana.

The launch in Accra marks the first phase the company’s operations in the country and will see the German carmaker produce three cars daily, with plans to increase the production capacity in the second phase, the firm’s Ghana Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Oppong Peprah, told the media at the launch.

Mr. Peprah further noted that the cars assembled in the country are over 10 percent lower in term of cost than imported ones, due import duty waivers on locally assembled vehicles.

Speaking at the launch, the President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the unveiling of the first locally-made Volkswagen cars presents a win-win opportunity for both foreign and local companies engaged in the industry’s value chain, and puts Ghana on course to be an automobile hub in the West Africa.

“I am confident that we in Ghana are on the course of a bold new beginning in our country which will reiterate our fast receding culture of failure; we will make it,” he said.