Over 300 graduates offered jobs at Toyota, Suzuki assembling plant – Akufo-Addo

•Over 300 graduates have been offered jobs at the Toyota, Suzuki assembling plant in Ghana

•The highly skilled jobs being created at the facility will reduce the use of foreign exchange to import second-hand vehicles

•The Toyota Tsusho Vehicle Assembly Plant is located at the Free Zones enclave in Tema

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed that some 300 young Ghanaian graduates from tertiary institutions across the country have been offered employment opportunities at the Toyota Tsusho Vehicle Assembly Plant.

According to the president, the new and highly skilled jobs being created at the facility will reduce the use of foreign exchange to import secondhand vehicles, boost the exports of Made in Ghana cars to other African markets and earn the nation much needed foreign exchange.

“This facility has already offered some three hundred and thirty-four (334) employment opportunities to young Ghanaian graduates from our tertiary institutions across the country, notably from the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the George Grant University of Mines and Technology, and some technical and vocational institutions,” the president said.

“The vision is to make Ghana a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub for the automotive industry in West Africa, and we are very much on course,” he added.

Akufo-Addo said the presence of the Toyota Tsusho plant in Ghana is a bold move that will help towards developing the Ghana Automotive Development Policy under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

President Akufo-Addo and the Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Ichiro Kashitani had earlier signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of a Toyota and Suzuki Assembly Plant in Ghana.

The two countries earlier projected the last quarter of 2020 for the production of locally manufactured vehicles to commence in Ghana but that was pushback as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Already Volkswagen, Sinotruk and now Toyota & Suzuki have established their presence in the country.