What has Innoson, Nnewi gained from all these visits by FG officials since this year?
Earlier in the year, the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited (IVM) plant at Nnewi was a pilgrimage of sort for top government officials.
Even before the Acting President visited few months ago, there have been other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of the federal government trooping the factory for tourism sake.
Business Hilights recalls that during the visit of the Acting President, Nnewi community was assured that the federal government will among other things provide condusive environment for industrial development which many of them said nothing has happened.
Some of the indigenes and business operators who spoke to our correspondent recently said there is federal presence in Nnewi industrial hub.
It would also be recalled that the Nnewi and the entire Anambra Business community called on the presidency during the visit to put Onitsha River Port to use which the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo promised to look into and up till now, nothing has happened, rather the port is becoming a shadow of itself. It would be recalled that the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan used taxpayers’ money running into N4bn to rehabilitate the port and lost election on the verge of getting a concessionaire to operate the port.
More than two year into this administration, the Onitsha River port was left to rot away, only for federal government officials to be trooping down to Nnewi to see flashes of industrial ingenuity by IVM.
The latest pilgrim earlier this week was the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who described the IVM as a trail blazer in Nigeria’s automotive industry.
He made the remarks in Nnewi, Anambra State, on Monday at the company, saying “Having toured this factory today, I make bold to say that Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd. is a trail blazer in the automotive industry, and a shining example of what Nigeria is capable of achieving if it looks inwards and taps into the boundless energy and ingenuity of its people”.
Mohammed said as a manufacturing company, Innoson has demonstrated the spirit behind the formulation of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan, which is aimed at curtailing the dependence on imports and ensuring the growth of the Nigerian automotive industry, using local resources.
“Innoson is living up to what the policy aims to achieve: Creation of jobs, conservation of foreign exchange and acceleration of technical development,” he said.
The Minister said the Federal Government will continue to encourage the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products, noting that in that regard, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Culture, recently held the National Media Launch of the Made-in Nigeria Campaign.
“On May 18th 2017, as part of the Ease of Doing Business Initiative, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo signed three Executive Orders. One of the three is called the ‘Support for local contents in public procurement by the Federal Government’.
“A key provision of this is that all ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall grant preferences to local manufacturers of goods and service providers in their procurement of goods and services,” he said, noting that Innoson will be a major beneficiary of the Executive Orders.
It was however observed that the Minister failed to make any announcement placing other on behalf of the government as part of encouraging local content.
The Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited is now manufacturing over 10,000 vehicles and has created over 7,000 jobs.
In his remarks, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, said the company, which started operations in 2009, has production lines for Buses, Pick-up Vans, Sports Utility Vehicles and Sedans, among others.
He said the company has the capacity to produce 10,000 vehicles per year and called for more patronage of its products.
Chukwuma further revealed that the company has succeeded in reducing its foreign manpower from 300 at inception to 15, “thereby ensuring technology transfer in the manufacturing of vehicles”.
