Toyota Ghana launches new Toyota Corolla

TOYOTA Ghana Limited, has launched the 9th edition of the Toyota Corolla car at a colourful ceremony in Accra at the weekend.

The new Toyota Corolla, which is the latest addition to the company’s fleet of Toyota vehicles, comes barely six months after it released the 4x4 Toyota Condor unto the Ghanaian market.

The ceremony was also used to present two cheques for ?150 million, being proceeds from the Condor Fund, to support the educational and health sectors of the economy.

Each of the sectors, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit of the Ministry of Health, were given 50 per cent of the amount respectively.

The company also intends to set up another fund to support students at the secondary and tertiary levels the next year.

In his address, Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said the launching of the new Corolla is a demonstration of the confidence the company has in the economy of the country.

He said the company was incorporated in Ghana in 1998 and started operations in hard economic times and added that due to perseverance and efficient sales strategy, it has been able to weather the storm. Mr Saddique said the “high standard or quality of the new Toyota Corolla should not only be appreciated in terms of comfort but also be seen as a challenge to Ghanaian manufacturers.”

He commended the company for also realising the need to support the educational and health sectors of the economy after paying its taxes and expressed the hope that other companies will emulate the example. On his part, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Hisao Ikegai, described the car as the best sold passenger vehicle not only in Ghana and Japan, but also in other countries across the world, explaining that more than 28 million of them have been sold.

He mentioned some of the features on the car as a roomy interior, increased trunk space, special headlights which are more powerful than what is found in most cars, adding that the car comes in 1.8 and 1.3 litre engines.