The government of Ghana has sent a bill to parliament which when passed will ensure a ban is imposed on the importation of aged cars to Ghana.

Explaining the purpose of the bill, Majority Leader of Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said: “The Customs Amendment Bill, I’m just giving you what these bills are meant to achieve, you will know that prior to the economic environment that we have now, it is almost good to mention the political stability that we have as a country. The sojourning of the President is yielding positive results in the sense we have many auto manufacturing companies that want to come and begin assembling automobile in the country…Nissan has given indication, Toyota has given indication and Sino truck has given indication and also from France, Rhino; and if they want to come, we need to clean up the environment”.

He added that: “You cannot have them to come and begin the production of new vehicles when you allow unfettered importation of second-hand vehicles. So, we have to regulate the importation of second-hand vehicles.”

According to him, the law will be amended to ban the importation of vehicles older than 10 years as well as prevent the importation of salvaged vehicles (accidents vehicles) that flood the market. 

This, he believes, will reduce the numerous carnages on the roads.

“We will suggest to ourselves, once the vehicle assembly plants are rolling out, we may give ourselves a period of about six mounts and we say that six months after they start production, then the law could be activated. Of course, the second-hand imported vehicles are also very expensive”, the Suame MP said.

He was hopeful that brand-new vehicles will sell at cheaper prices, say US$10,000 and thereby encourage many Ghanaians to buy them.

The expected ban of old vehicles may also throw some second-hand vehicle dealers out of business.