Nissan has opened a state-of-the-art assembly factory in Tema, Ghana, eight years after launching its assembly plant in Nigeria.
The President of Ghana, HE Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, launched the Nissan Navara manufacturing factory, which has been dubbed "the best in West Africa."
According to a news report, the factory is the completion of a process that began in 2018 when Nissan became the country's first mover, signing a memorandum of understanding with the government to cooperate on the Ghana Automotive Development Policy. Nissan has chosen Japan Motors, one of the company's two long-term distributors in the nation, to be its licensed assembler in 2020.
Work on the 5000 sq.m plant began shortly afterward and today, 17 months later, the plant was officially commissioned by the president as the first Navaras began rolling off the assembly lines. Nissan Africa Managing Director, Mike Whitfield, said it was an incredible joyous and emotional experience.
“Less than eight months ago, the Nissan plant in Rosslyn South Africa passed its final test to be given the green light to start manufacturing the all new ‘built of more’ Nissan Navara. Right at that time, a key group from this plant graduated in the same plant, having received extensive and intensive training on the assembling of these vehicles.
“Just over a month ago, this brand-new assembly plant passed its own final test – the very same one that the Rosslyn plant had to pass because in the world of Nissan there is only one standard – it is Nissan’s. I can tell you all, without any fear of contradiction, that this is the most modern, most state-of the art plant anywhere in West Africa.”
The plant, he said, was proof of the fantastic public private partnership between the government of Ghana, Japan Motors and Nissan Africa.
