Vehicle manufacturing company Isuzu Motors is considering scaling up its operations in the ECOWAS region and is currently considering Ghana and other countries in the subregion as its main manufacturing hub in West Africa. One of their key requirements is a modern port that can efficiently and effectively handle their logistics and supply chain needs.

Consequently, a team of directors and senior managers from Isuzu South Africa has visited Ghana on a fact-finding mission. They paid a visit to the management of the Port of Tema, where they discussed potential areas of collaboration. A supply chain executive at Isuzu Motors South Africa, Tony Pienaar, said his outfit looks to Ghana as a strategic nation for investments in the automotive industry and is eager to see the role Ghana’s ports could play.

“The purpose of our visit here is to understand the operations of the Ghana Port as we look to develop relations into West Africa and also develop networks to be able to distribute our product and components into these markets. So what we're primarily looking for in partners as we look in these areas is an efficient operation that is not only world class in terms of efficiencies but is also competitive from a price perspective as we move products through these markets.”.

The Director of Port, Tema, Sandra Opoku, said the Port Authority is ready to consider customers on a case-by-case basis in terms of incentives in a bid to serve them satisfactorily.

“They've been sending some vehicles to Ghana already since 2016, and they haven't had any issues when using Tema Port. Currently, what they want to do is come and actually set up shop in Ghana, which is on a larger scale than what they were doing before. As Port Authority, we are ready to give them all the necessary support and also facilitate their coming in.”.