GSA project team, experts meet on national vehicle certification programme

Accra, March 12, GNA - A team of consultants from South Africa, on Monday, began a four-day meeting with members of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) Project Team for the establishment of a National Vehicle Homologation Programme for the Ghanaian automotive industry.

Automotive Homologation is the process of certifying vehicles or a particular component of a vehicle that it has satisfied the requirements set by various statutory regulatory bodies.

It is mandatory to get this approval to export automobile products or components.

The meeting, which is a follow-up to the one held at the headquarters of the GSA, in Accra last month, seeks to sharpen the skills of the GSA team on the development of a standard for the automotive (vehicle assembling/manufacturing) industry.

The programme is designed to ensure the adoption of all relevant international standards for vehicle parts and systems and the development of Compulsory Vehicle Standards.

Opening the meeting, Mr. Charles Amoako, the GSA’s Deputy Director-General (Conformity Assessment), welcomed the experts to Ghana for the engagement.

He said as a major stakeholder in implementing the draft National Automotive Policy, his outfit had put together a 12-member team, tasked with the responsibility of executing the GSA Vehicle Homologation Programme.

The leader of the consultants, Mr. Hendrik G. Moolman, thanked the GSA for the warm reception and said it was a privilege to work with Ghana for a good cause.

He took participants through a demonstration exercise to make them conversant with the task ahead during the meeting.

Ghana, last year, signed Memoranda of Understanding with three global automobile manufacturing companies – Volkswagen, Sinotruk and Nissan – to establish assembly plants here, to among other things, create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.

The Government expects to have these plants operational this year, and thus plans to introduce a National Automotive Policy ahead to guide and regulate the industry.

The draft policy, among other things, grants the GSA the responsibility for the homologation of all vehicles manufactured in Ghana.

GNA 

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