Nigeria’s first indigenous automaker, Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company Limited (IVM), has been named ‘Auto Manufacturer of the Year (local content)’, at the 2021 edition of the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) Award recently held in Lagos.
According to a statement, organisers of the award said the Nnewi-based automaker has made tremendous efforts to develop the local industry, especially by looking inwards and engaging in real manufacturing thereby impacting positively on the downstream firms.
Obum Osigwe, general manager, Sales, at Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company received the award on behalf of Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, chairman of IVM, and thanked NAJA for the recognition. Osigwe said the award would energize IVM to deepen its efforts to manufacture vehicles needed by the Nigerian market.
“We will not relent as a company till our country is known around the world due to our vehicles,” Osigwe pledged, stressing that the company is constantly investing in the quality and reliability of its line-up of vehicles.
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A pointer to Innososn’s commitment to building vehicles according to the customers’ needs is a batch of 100 mass transit buses the plant is currently producing for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which will run on both compressed natural gas (CNG) and the usual fuel, it said in a statement.
The expansion of the product range led to the commissioning of two new plants in July 2021 and the installation of an automated robotic paint spray booth, which was integrated into the production processes to increase efficiency and quality in the IVM factory complex.
Part of the auto plant’s plan in the next few years is to see sundry IVM vehicles being widely used on the continent, leveraging on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) opportunities.
“Innoson Vehicles typifies the spirit of an average Nigerian. We will keep striving and working hard to make Nigerians proud,” Osigwe remarked.
Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd, since it was officially commissioned by the then President Goodluck Jonathan in October 2010, has since added more products to the IVM line-up, including shuttle buses, bigger buses for mass transit, various pick-up truck models (some made for the security agencies), sedans, SUVs, ambulances, family vans, and refuse management vehicles.
