GHANA – The parliament of Ghana has finally passed the automotive bill prohibiting the importation of any vehicle that has a history of accident into the country as from October this year.

Prior to the new the new law, Ghanaian car dealers could bring in damaged vehicles, repair them before selling them to customers.

This provided a cheaper option to Ghanaians keen on having their own cars.

According to a report by Bloomberg, vehicles older than 10 years were also not spared by the automotive bill which also bans their importation.

Unlike in accident cars whose ban is just two months away, Ghanaians were given an opportunity to continue importing older vehicles until six months after the manufacturing or assembling of new vehicles in Ghana begin.

Earlier this month, Ghana’s President Nana Akuffo-Addo inaugurated the first vehicles assembled locally by the German automaker, Volkswagen.

This implies that Ghanaians will no longer be able to import cars that are older than 10 years as from February next year.

Ghana’s new automotive law is part of a bigger plan towards the implementation of the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Programme, which has so far attracted several global car assembly plants into the country.

The law seeks to provide incentives for automotive manufacturers and assemblers in order to position Ghana as a car-manufacturing hub for West Africa, a region with more than 380 million people.

Volkswagen, Nissan, Toyota Motor Corp., Suzuki Motor Corp. and Renault SA are among automakers eyeing the local assembly of vehicles in a country where used cars make up about 70% of vehicle imports.

The import restrictions could cost the government as much as $143 million in customs revenue in the first three years after implementation, according to parliamentary documents.

This is however expected to be partially offset by the additional revenue from customs duties on vehicles not covered by the programme, according to the joint report of the joint committee on Finance and Trade, Industry and Tourism.

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