{"id":990618,"date":"2022-02-14T20:31:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T20:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/14\/we-need-affordable-loans-not-non-competitive-market-kantanka\/"},"modified":"2022-02-14T20:31:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T20:31:39","slug":"we-need-affordable-loans-not-non-competitive-market-kantanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/14\/we-need-affordable-loans-not-non-competitive-market-kantanka\/","title":{"rendered":"We need affordable loans, not non-competitive market\u2014Kantanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\n                                                   Okyereko (C\/R), Feb. 14, GNA \u2013 The Kantanka Automobile Company Limited has dismissed public calls on government to insulate the company against competition from global automotive brands in the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/1.21388744.png\" width=\"100%\" height=\"\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"kMediaObject\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Advocating a \u201cfree market\u201d, it said such a move would defeat government\u2019s agenda to make Ghana an automotive industry hub in the West Africa Sub Region.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Instead, Mr Francis Kudzordzi, the General Manager, noted that what the company needed was easy access to affordable loans to enable it compete favourably.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">\u201cWe started with our own capital without government support. But once the industry is expanding and demand is getting higher than our capacity financially, we need to go for loan. Accessing loan to meet demand is a very big challenge. It is not easy to access loans,\u201d he bemoaned.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Government, through the Ghana Automotive Development Policy, is looking to make Ghana a car manufacturing hub.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Under the programme, Toyota Tsusho Manufacturing Company in 2021, commissioned an assembly plant to assemble Toyota and Suzuki brands of vehicles in the country.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Already, Volkswagen and Sinotruck have been in Ghana since 2020.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Government, in its 2022 budget statement, announced that four more vehicle assembly plants namely Nissan, KIA, Hyundai and Renault were also expected to start commercial production in the country in 2022.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">In light of this, some Ghanaians have suggested that government must, in the spirit of patriotism and building local capacity, protect Kantanka against these global giants who are relatively far better resourced and experienced.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">But, Mr Kudzordzi believed that would not augur well for Ghana\u2019s industrialisation drive, insisting that the company had the capacity to compete.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">The Kantanka Automobile Company Limited was established by Apostle Dr Ing. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka in 1994 and incorporated as a Limited Liability Company in 2004.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Currently, the company manufactures Pickup, SUV and Sedan vehicles and has market in West Africa and Europe.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">It has been registered under government\u2019s One District One Factory policy and is entitled to benefit from 60 percent discount on interest of loans it secures.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Additionally, the company has been given a 10-year tax holiday with a tax-exemption deal on imported materials for assembling and manufacturing purposes under the Ghana Automotive Development Policy.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">According to Mr Kudzordzi, Kantanka Automobile was poised to move Ghana to the next level, through automobile manufacturing.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">\u201cWe are the eye opener of the contemporary stage of the Ghanaian automotive industry. We are trying to demystify the notion that we cannot do it,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okyereko (C\/R), Feb. 14, GNA \u2013 The Kantanka Automobile Company Limited has dismissed public calls on government to insulate the company against competition from global automotive brands in the country. Advocating a \u201cfree market\u201d, it said such a move would defeat government\u2019s agenda to make Ghana an automotive industry hub in the West Africa Sub [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":990619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[5039,4184,5040,5041],"class_list":["post-990618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affordable","tag-loans","tag-marketkantanka","tag-noncompetitive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}