Trade Minister Urges Local Sourcing to Maximise AfCFTA Opportunities
Minister of Trade and Industry, Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, has called on Ghana-based heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers to increase their use of locally sourced components in order to fully benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Speaking during a working visit to Zonda Tec Ghana Limited on Thursday evening, the Minister emphasized the importance of meeting AfCFTA’s rules of origin, which require manufacturers to prioritise local materials—such as tyres and batteries—to qualify for duty-free trade under the agreement.
“To trade under AfCFTA, you must prioritise locally sourced materials,” Mrs. Ofosu-Adjare stated. “This is essential for duty-free access across the continent.”
Zonda Tec, a prominent assembler and distributor of light and heavy-duty vehicles, hosted the Minister at its facility in Tema, where she highlighted the broader benefits of local sourcing. These include reduced reliance on imports, lower production costs, and improved supply chain efficiency—all key to strengthening Ghana’s position as a competitive exporter within Africa.
The Minister also announced that the government is reviewing Ghana’s Automotive Development Policy to include heavy-duty vehicles, aligning with AfCFTA’s implementation. The original policy, introduced in 2019, focused on promoting the local production of affordable new vehicles to reduce dependence on used imports. Ghana currently imports approximately 100,000 vehicles annually, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.
Mrs. Ofosu-Adjare expressed optimism that these reforms could position Ghana—home to the AfCFTA Secretariat and a gateway to a 1.3 billion-person market—as a future automotive trade hub.
“This revision aims to incentivise companies like Zonda to scale up production while ensuring compliance with Ghana Standards Authority regulations,” she told the Ghana News Agency.
Commending Zonda for employing over 500 Ghanaians, she encouraged the company to adopt a three-shift model under the government’s proposed 24-hour economy initiative, with a goal of tripling its workforce.
The Minister also welcomed Zonda’s plans to establish a training institute, praising its potential to build a skilled local workforce and support long-term growth in the sector. She announced that she would soon lead a trade delegation to China to attract more investment in Ghana’s automotive industry and encouraged Zonda to expand its training programmes in China for Ghanaian staff.
“In the next decade, 90 percent of your workforce should be Ghanaian,” she said, underscoring the importance of reducing dependence on foreign labour.
“Buying ‘Made in Ghana’ sustains jobs, increases tax revenue, and moves us from an import-dependent economy to an export-led one,” the Minister added.
Zonda Tec’s Managing Director, Ms. Yang Yang, praised Ghana’s “very positive environment” for automotive manufacturing and urged the government to provide more regulatory support, especially for heavy-duty vehicle assemblers.
“We are enjoying the auto policy,” she said, noting the presence of global auto brands like Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan, Suzuki, KIA, and Mahindra in Ghana.
Ms. Yang highlighted the company’s long-standing efforts in technology transfer, revealing that Chinese engineers have been training Ghanaian workers at Zonda’s local facility for the past six years. More recently, Ghanaian engineers have been sent to China for advanced training.
“Our workers are now skilled technicians—and increasingly valuable,” she remarked.
Zonda Tec currently assembles a wide range of vehicles in Ghana, including bulldozers, graders, excavators, tipper trucks, trailer heads, oil tankers, pickups, and SUVs.
