The Katanka Group, a local automobile manufacturing company, plans to capture the local market before making inroads into the international scene.

The move is to make the company’s automobile products more competitive on the local market.

At a ceremony to present the keys of a four-wheel drive vehicle, “Onantefo Kantanka” brand to the Minister of Trade and Industry, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Nana Kwadwo Akofena Safo, said the decision was also to boost local demand and patronage of its products. The brand costs GH¢150,000, including Value Added Tax (VAT).

He said the policy was informed by the pacesetters in the automobile industries in the United States, Japan, Korea, among other countries.

Targeted deliveries

Nana Safo said the company had embarked on demand deliveries to some institutions and individuals.

The company has so far made deliveries to the Ghana Police Service, the Asantehene, Office of the Vice-President, and the Okyenhene.

Nana Safo said the brand was equipped with the latest state-of-the-art gadgets and could compete with the known brands of four- wheel drives on the international market.

Receiving the keys to the vehicle, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, commended the Kantanka Group for its initiative and said the government would support such initiatives to boost local industries.

He described the company’s initiative as a practical demonstration of the quest to create employment and jobs, as well as tap local skills, use of local technology and local entrepreneurship.

Mr Kyerematen pledged the government’s support for the company since its initiative was consistent with the government’s policy and determination to boost industrialisation and the patronage of locally manufactured products.