Robert Bosch Ghana Limited has defined Ghana as the hub for its West and Central Africa automotive aftermarket business.
By this, Ghana will be serving 19 countries in these countries will pay for the services of Bosch directly to Ghana.
This move is expected to translate into more revenue for the government as all the money that will be paid from these countries will be declared as revenue from Ghana, out of which taxes will be paid.
Also, VAT on all sales that will be done from Ghana to these countries will be paid to the government of Ghana.
Addressing the media in Accra, the West Africa Regional Director of Bosch, Mr. Julien Lacoste, said the company identified Ghana as the hub for business due to the very close relationship between Ghana and Germany where Bosch headquartered.
“From a business perspective too, we see a lot of opportunities in the automotive aftermarket industry in Ghana,” he stated.
“Ghana is offering a very positive perspective in terms of development and discussion and the market survey we have gathered over the last month has given us the confidence that Ghana is the right place to do business with local partners and the rest of the countries in West and Central Africa, “he added.
Ghana well positioned
The Managing Director of Bosch Ghana, Mr. Emmanuel Agyei, on his part, said its business operations in Africa covered Ghana and 20 other countries but had established offices only in Ghana and Nigeria.
He stated that due to the market size of Nigeria, it decided to establish a mini market in Nigeria and do the rest of its business in the region from Ghana.
He believed Ghana was well positioned and was the most appropriate place to serve the region due to the country’s flexible tax laws.
“From taxation perspective, Ghana is more appropriate to be the hub. We are invoicing from Ghana, which means all the other countries will pay directly into the country so we needed a country with favourable tax laws,” he noted.
Invoicing in Local currency
Mr. Agyei also pointed out that invoicing for Ghanaian customers in its automotive aftermarket business was going to be done in the Ghana cedis, and for the rest of the region invoicing would be done in Euros.
He disclosed that the company established itself in Ghana in 2015 but the establishment was not a business or sales operation.
“We came here as representative office of the Bosch Middle East which is based in Dubai. We were here just to do a market study and do business development. Now that we have established ourselves to do business in Ghana, we are invoicing in local currency,” he said.
