Vehicle and Assets Dealers urge IGP to address importation of stolen cars into Ghana

Stolen vehicles should be detected at their various ports, Vehicle and Asset Dealers Association says

IGP interacts with Vehicles and Assets Dealers

Customs Service express concerns over stolen imported vehicles


Vehicle and Asset Dealers Association has made a clarion call on the IGP, George Akuffo Dampare, to help abolish the importation of stolen cars

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According to the dealers, they do not have full knowledge of the status of the vehicles imported since most of the transactions are done online.


“Most of our members import vehicles from countries where we are not physically present. We get them bought online, do the necessary paper works, and import them into the country," they told GhanaWeb.


General Secretary of the Vehicle and Assets Dealers Union of Ghana, Joshua Opoku Agyemang, believes stolen vehicles should be detected at their various ports of entry before they arrive in Ghana.

Opoku Agyyemang added that the size and tangibility of cars allow for easy detection and flagging.


“As a matter of fact, car importation can be compared to the importation of other goods where you can say smuggling is easy. Cars are huge and tangible and it passes through the necessary checks at our various ports and so if there is a stolen vehicle, we believe it should be detected even at the port of entry before it gets into our country," he noted.


The Union is, however, calling on the IGP to make clear the interventions to be made to deal with the issue. They also want a National security apparatus that states clear procedures laid out to mitigate the increasing rate of stolen cars imported into Ghana.

The Customs, Excise, and Preventive Service in 2007 expressed concerns over Ghana becoming a destination for stolen vehicles from across the world.

As part of measures to deal with the menace, the service stated that all vehicles that arrive at the ports or entry points un-manifested would be seized as mandated by law.

This would also apply to vehicles in transit or trans-shipment as long as they are un-manifested.