The founder and chairman of the Innoson Group of Companies, owner of the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd (IVM), Nnewi, Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, was honoured with the Manufacturer of the Year Award at the Silverbird Man of the Year Awards 2023, held at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, for being the first automaker in Nigeria to begin manufacturing vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
The award’s organiser, Silverbird Group, stated that they took into account the fact that Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd. started producing various CNG-powered buses and other vehicles two years before the government removed fuel subsidies on May 29, 2023.
The Group expressed admiration for the IVM management’s risk-taking and risk-assessing skills when they decided to venture into the production of CNG vehicles.
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At the vibrant ceremony held in Lagos on March 3, 2024, Chief Chukwuma received the award. Obum Osigwe, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Nnewi, represented Chief Chukwuma.
Receiving the award, Osigwe said, “I wholeheartedly, on behalf of my boss and Chairman, Chief Dr Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma CON, accept this prestigious award for the manufacturer of the year. We are grateful for this honour and we will keep doing our best for our dear nation Nigeria.
“I would like to thank the Chairman, Management and Staff of Silverbird Group for this honour. This award will spur us more at Innoson Vehicles to do more and increase our effort in making vehicles Nigeria and the world will be proud of.
“Thank you for shedding light on the activities of manufacturers in Nigeria. We are immensely grateful because, without you, Nigerians won’t know our toils and travails in the manufacturing sector. Thank you so much and God bless our nation Nigeria.”
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About two years prior to the removal of fuel subsidies and the widespread adoption of CNG as the preferred fuel substitute for petrol and diesel, Chukwuma began manufacturing CNG automobiles.
Innoson had approximately 100 units of various CNG cars in its facilities in Nnewi, Anambra State, as of May 29, 2023, when the Federal Government announced the removal of subsidies. This is on top of the vehicles that had previously been supplied to consumers in various parts of the nation.
In order to focus on producing autogas vehicles, the manufacturer has started building a considerably larger, multibillion-naira IVM plant annexe in Nnewi. It will occupy some 300 plots of land and is anticipated to be put into service in the first quarter of 2024.
Four decades later, what started out as a retailer of motorbike spare parts has developed into one of Nigeria’s largest industrial success stories and the country’s top advocate for products created in the country.
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Innoson Nigeria became the first motorcycle manufacturer in Nigeria to be entirely indigenous when it opened a fully automated motorbike assembly plant in Anambra State in 1995. The group established Innoson Technical and Industrial Limited, Nigeria’s largest plastic manufacturing facility, with more than 150 product lines, in the same year.
The exhibition of two exceptional Innoson vehicles at the venue’s entrance—the IVM De Imperial pickup, one of the newest models in the rapidly expanding Innoson vehicle lineup, and the IVM Caris sedan—was one of the highlights of the Silverbird Awards.
Important figures in the Nigerian business community have urged citizens to support small companies in their communities in order to strengthen the nation’s economy.
Speaking during the award ceremony, Dr. Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace, urged Nigerians to assist small businesses in order to strengthen the nation’s economy. He emphasised the significance of doing business with and lending support to local companies in order to hasten the nation’s economic development.
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According to him, Nigerians must “support their own” in order to prosper rather than partaking in actions that irritate these companies.
Similarly, Senator Ben Murray Bruce, CEO of Silverbird Group, urged Nigerians to patronise and nurture local businesses because doing so is essential to the nation’s sustainable economic development.
Dr. Chukwuma received the prize two weeks after receiving The Sun prize’s highest distinction, Man of the Year, for being the first automaker in Nigeria to start producing a line of automobiles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG).
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