By Aaron Hammond 
Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang is heavily pushing for a stronger Ghanaian automotive sector. She recently paid a very important working visit to the Zonda Tec assembly plant located near Tema. Her main goal was to personally inspect their massive production lines and encourage them to do even more. The government seriously wants to retain higher value within our local automotive space.
During her extensive tour she observed the complete assembly of heavy trucks and other specialized machinery at Zonda Tec. The company smartly operates under a Completely Knocked Down system which creates various technical jobs. She also took time to inspect their light vehicle assembly plant where hybrid and electric vehicles are carefully put together. This clearly shows that lower emission technologies are finally gaining solid ground here.
While praising their current efforts the Vice President threw a bigger challenge to the management. She strongly urged Zonda Tec to boldly expand their operations beyond just assembling imported parts. Her clear vision is for the company to explore fresh opportunities to manufacture those critical vehicle components right here in Ghana. This bold move will automatically strengthen domestic supply chains and create thousands of direct jobs for our youth.
Prof Opoku-Agyemang also used the perfect opportunity to link this massive industrial expansion to the 24-Hour Economy initiative. She firmly believes continuous production cycles will unlock employment at a much larger scale for citizens. However she warned that our local training institutions must work very closely with these big industries. The current skills developed in our schools must perfectly align with the fresh opportunities opening up.
It is always refreshing to see top officials supporting women led businesses like Zonda Tec Ghana Limited. Their female Founder and Chief Executive Officer Yang Yang personally guided the Vice President throughout the entire facility tour. Such powerful collaborations definitely show the massive impact women are making on our overall economic development. We eagerly hope management takes the wise advice and starts producing those local components very soon.
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