When Dr. Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma OFR conceived the idea to set up Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd IVM, he shared the vision to a few of his trusted friends. Each of them discouraged him that it won’t be a wise investment.
They opined that the existing vehicle assembly plant in Nigeria such as ANAMMCO, PAN, VON, et al have all gone into comatose, also that the Nigerian government will not patronize him. They asked him how he intends to compete with some Vehicle brands that have already had a strong root in the country such as Toyota, KIA, Hyundai, etc.
In spite of all the negative advice he received from his trusted friends not to pursue this vision, Dr. Chukwuma went ahead with the opinion that it is better for him to start and fail to succeed than not starting at all because of fear of failure. With Nigerian’s penchant to patronize foreign goods above local goods, it only takes a lot of guts to start a venture such as setting up a vehicle manufacturing company.
Fast forward to 11 years later, Innoson Vehicles has been able to prove doubters wrong on its ability to manufacture and sell Made in Nigeria vehicles to the Nigerian market. But the Big Question is: How much patronage does it enjoy from the Nigerian People? How much patronage does it enjoy from the Nigerian Market?
With over 12,000 brand new light vehicles sold in 2019 in Nigeria; what is Innoson Vehicles market share compared to its foreign counterparts?
Innoson Vehicles can only succeed if the government, corporate institutions, and the public highly patronize truly made-In-Nigeria vehicles.
According to The Economist Intelligent Unit in its forecast for Nigeria 2020-2024; it said “Nigeria will be in a state of near-stagflation, with tight credit conditions, low growth, rising unemployment, and high inflation………, Nigeria will remain well below potential.
This is a very negative forecast and one major way we can use to prevent it is when we start buying Made-in-Nigeria to grow the Naira. It is generally believed that when we start producing most of the products we import and also patronize our locally made products that the value of Naira will improve and be as strong as dollar, euro, and pounds.
A major panacea to the fall in the value of our Naira against the dollar/pounds/euro is for us to start walking the talk by patronizing locally manufactured products. Our economy will never improve unless we adopt our locally manufactured goods.
Recently it was reported in the news circle that the House of Representatives rejected an offer from a Member of the House for them to patronize Made-In-Nigeria vehicles and instead they agreed to patronize foreign brands of vehicles. This goes on to show that the people who are entrusted to make laws to encourage the patronage of made-in-Nigeria products are not yet ready themselves to key in. How then can our economy grow?
Read Also: Innoson Innovates Again As He Launches Lion IVM In UNN(Opens in a new browser tab)
It is time the government starts walking the talk by showing faith in our locally made goods and services. Rome was not built in a day. We need to start showing confidence in what our local industries are doing.
There are a lot of attendant benefits that will accrue to our local manufacturing companies if the government start patronizing them. The Federal Government should henceforth start showing faith to the likes of Innoson Vehicles to help them grow to world-class. It is time we walk the talk.
Follow us on Facebook
Post Disclaimer
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author and forum participants on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Anaedo Online or official policies of the Anaedo Online.