The Automobile Dealers Union of Ghana (ADUG) welcomes the decision of the Government to pass a bill to ban the importation of accident vehicles into the country, albeit with some reservations.
According to them the proposals being made in drafting of the bill are not prudent and does not address all their concerns.
The bill
The Government had initiated plans to formulate a law to ban the importation of overaged and accident vehicles into the country.
The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, disclosed this in an interview on Accra based Okay FM, on Tuesday 11th February 2019.
Automobile manufacturing companies such as Nissan and VW have initiated plans to set up assembling plants, starting this year, in Ghana. The plants will serve the Ghanaian market and other West African countries.
This, perhaps, informed the thinking of the government to initiate a law to ban the importation of accident and overaged vehicles into the country.
When finally passed, Mr Mensah-Bonsu said, the bill, which is currently at the consultation stage, will help create an enabling environment and the market for the many vehicle manufacturing companies that have pledged to set up assembling plants in the country.
Not fully satisfied
However, responding to the issue in an interview with the Ghana Talk Business, the President of the ADUG, Mr Eric Boateng, said that although the union made several inputs on the issue, as they were represented in the committee set up to draft the bill, they are still not satisfied with certain portions of the draft bill.
“We are not happy about the bill but we agree with it to some extent, say 70 per cent, but we are now going to sit down with our members to discuss the issue and see what will come out of it”.
“What will be our stand, as dealers, If the brand new cars that are going to be assembled here starts selling in the markets?” He quizzed.
The way forward
Meanwhile, Mr Boateng, said that the minister had assured them that their business will not be affected because it was going to allow them to import secondhand vehicles used between two to nine years.
In addition to this, he added that they also want the government to provide them with a marketing centre where they can sell their vehicles.
“We normally encroach government properties to showcase our cars, but now we need a show marketing centre where all the secondhand dealers could go and sell our cars”, he requested.
Mr Boateng further added that his union had sent a memorandum of understanding, which will make them the sole dealers of secondhand vehicles in the country, to the minister to consider.
If this is not assented to, he maintained, that “these Lebanese people will still come and take over our business because our members don’t have the financial muscle to compete with them”.
In addition to this, he said, the union is also asking the minister to give them the sole right to handle car swapping related activities in the country.
