Few weeks after Twitter announced its plans to open its first African office in Ghana, Hyundai and Kia have also concluded plans to set up an assembly plants in Ghana by 2022. The automobile giants will join Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Kantanka, Volkswagen, and Sinotruck who already have plants.

Ghana’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen announced this on Twitter.

Pleased to announce that Hyundai & KIA are set to establish assembly plants in Ghana by the end of 2022 to join Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Kantanka, Volkswagen & Sinotruck. The Ghana Auto Development programme = 3,600 assembly & 6,600 manufacturing parts jobs in Ghana. #InvestforJobs pic.twitter.com/JMHAmlM5VI

— Alan John Kyerematen (@AlanKyerematen) April 22, 2021

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“Pleased to announce that Hyundai & KIA are set to establish assembly plants in Ghana by the end of 2022 to join Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Kantanka, Volkswagen & Sinotruck. The Ghana Auto Development program = 3,600 assemblies & 6,600 manufacturing parts jobs in Ghana.

“The local assembly of vehicles, 3,600 direct and indirect jobs would be created in Ghana, and the addition of components and parts manufacturing will also add about 6,600 direct and indirect jobs.”

READ: Toyota snubs Nigeria as it moves to establish assembly plants in Ghana, Ivory Coast 

Why this matters

More foreign companies are shunning Nigeria in favour of Ghana. Recently, Nairametrics reported that Amazon is set to situate its African Headquarters in South Africa, a multi-billion dollar investment that is projected to create over 20,000 jobs both directly and indirectly.

Following its move to Ghana, Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey cited a number of human rights-related reasons for the choice of Ghana over Nigeria. Added to this are rising insecurity, stifling government regulations and the gapping infrastructural deficit bedevilling Nigeria. Consequently, our nation is steadily losing opportunities to attract foreign companies that could be very instrumental in bridging its unemployment gap which is currently over 30%.

The Federal Government disclosed that all backlogs of undelivered passport requests would be fixed before May 31st, and announced the launch of a new passport application system, which would be aided by fast track services nationwide.

This was disclosed by Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, in a press briefing with newsmen on Thursday.

What the Minister said

“On or before May 31st, all backlogs of undelivered requests for passports will be totally met, unless such applications have a problem,” he said.

“But before the deadline, the problematic application would be contacted, so that we know what’s wrong with the applications. Assuming there would be no problem, every successful application for a passport would be given a passport on or before May 31st,” he added.

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The new passport process

The Minister disclosed that the FG will launch a new passport application process which would come into effect soon.

“When you finish your application process, there would be a waiting period of six weeks to collect your passport, however, if you want an express service, there would be fast track centres nationwide, to meet requests for express passport users,” he said.

What you should know 

• Recall Nairametrics reported last month that the Federal Government inaugurated the Nigeria Immigration Service Passport Express Centre, which is a partnership with the private sector to enable the government offer passport services to Nigerians and make passports available in a maximum of 72 hours of a successful application.
• The FG also launched the Electronic Temporary Passport to cater for Nigerians desirous of returning home but whose national passport is not available.