A photo of the Bonsa Tyre Company Limited
Under its first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana was one of Africa’s leading countries in industrialisation.
According to historical reports, Kwame Nkrumah’s government established over fifty (50) factories across the length and breadth of the country.
With Nkrumah seeking to make Ghana the hub for Pan-African activities, establishing these companies was meant to ensure dependability on products made in Ghana and Africa instead of Europe.
The companies were also to serve as job creation platforms for the new Ghana and help build the country’s budding economy.
However, over fifty-five years after the Nkrumah government was overthrown, only a handful of these factories are left in operation.
They were either sold by successive governments, diversified into other sectors, or collapsed, with their structures left to rot.
One such company is the Bonsa Tyre Company Limited, which was set up at Bonsa in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region.
The BTCL, which was established in 1963 as part of the import substitution program, was to produce vehicle tyres for the local automobile assembling industry and the mines.
According to a Daily Graphic report in 2021, the factory could produce over 1,500 tyres daily.
The report indicates that the company has been left to rot since 1980 when Firestone Tyres, a global brand, withdrew from the joint venture agreement and sold its 60 percent shares back to the government of Ghana.
SA/AE
Watch the current state of the company below:
The Bonsa Tyre Company Limited (BTCL), established by Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as part of his import substitution program, has been abandoned since 1980.
The factory, which could produce 1,500 tyres per day, was left to deteriorate after Firestone Tyres… pic.twitter.com/srvcTiFHHj
— SIKAOFFICIAL🦍 (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) November 14, 2024
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