GAZ Group and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Ghana sign a memorandum of cooperation in the field of school bus fleet upgrade in Ghana. Vadim Sorokin, GAZ Group President, and Barbara Asher-Ayisi, Deputy Minister for Education of the Republic of Ghana, apply their signatures to the deed. The signing ceremony takes place in Nizhny Novgorod in the presence of Maksim Cherkasov, Minister for Industry, Trade and Entrepreneurship of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
GAZ Group and the Ministry for Education of the Republic of Ghana signed a memorandum of cooperation. According thereto, GAZ Group becomes the key strategical partner of the Ministry for Education of Ghana in the field of school bus fleet upgrade. The Parties agreed together to develop supply of school buses on the basis of GAZelle Next mini buses, GAZelle Next Cityline frame buses and PAZ buses, and to set up aftersales and warranty servicing of the vehicles in the Republic of Ghana.
The program of school bus fleet upgrade in Ghana is included into the public vehicle fleet upgrade project of the government of Ghana. The Ministry for Education of the Republic of Ghana will implement the first stage of the program – replacement of over 500 school buses – within the next five years.
GAZ Group is the largest supplier of school buses in the Russian Federation. School buses of the new NEXT generation have great ride smoothness, excellent resistance at high speed, high informative content and great steering performance that may be compared with that of a car.
The GAZelle Next Cityline school bus is designed for transportation of 20 children and one accompanying person, and the school bus on the basis of GAZelle Next panel van has the passenger capacity of 18 seats. PAZ school buses are designed for transportation from 22 up to 28 passengers. Designers paid special attention to safety and comfort of young passengers. The seats are installed in the direction of travel and equipped with three-point retractable safety belts. The maximum speed is limited to 60 km/h. A special-purpose device prevents accidental door opening and locks the engine when a door is open. The passenger compartment is equipped with a rack for school bags. A driver call button is located at each raw of seats. The vehicles is outfitted with an additional retractable step to facilitate the access to the vehicle.
Nowadays, GAZ Group supplies vehicles to over 40 countries all over the world and has local promotion, sales and aftersales servicing partners in the five key regions – Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. GAZ Group export reliable and functional vehicles that are adapted to local climate and operational conditions: light commercial and medium-duty vehicles, trucks, buses and engines.
Vadim Sorokin, GAZ Group President:
– We have developed a new lineup of reliable and functional NEXT vehicles, on the basis of which we make the entire range of school buses. They allow upgrading the Russian fleet of buses for children transportation and have a large export potential. Nowadays, we have made the first step towards cooperation with the Ministry for Education of Ghana and have to do so much more: open an aftersales servicing centre, train staff and study opportunities of setting up an assembly production of GAZ vehicles in Ghana.
Barbara Asher-Ayisi, Deputy Minister for Education of the Republic of Ghana:
– The Memorandum that we signed with GAZ Group is the first step towards a long-term cooperation between the Ministry for Education of the Republic of Ghana and the most successful Russian commercial vehicle manufacturer. We are looking forward to the start of our cooperation to enhance safety of school children transportation. Moreover, we highly appreciate the know how, which GAZ Group will share with our local vehicle-building industry. Such cooperation will be based on the economic, technological and cultural exchange.
