Mr Innocent Chukwuma needs no introduction in Nigeria. He is the young man from Nnewi, the manufacturing capital of Nigeria who has, from the scratch, successfully built a vehicle manufacturing plant. Before this period, Chukwuma had established a motorcycle manufacturing plant and a plastic plant that is churning out helmets for use by motorcyclists in Nigeria.
The 46-year-old businessman, interestingly, started with just N3,000 he got from his brother and he has, today, built a multi- billion naira business empire. His case is a typical grass to grace story.
Chukwuma, who is a member of the Vision 20:2020, said he is conscious of the fact that Nigerians like quality and that the road network is not fantastic and, because of that, they decided to turn out quality and rugged vehicles that would stand the test of time.
He also said that apart from the durability of the vehicles, they are also cheaper than the imported ones.
His words: “I want to say that I am not afraid of competing with Honda, Toyota or any other big name in the automobile industry. I only have respect for them. My reason is because I have done it before and I hope to do it again. There were a lot of big names in the industry when I went into the manufacturing of motorcycles some years back, but that did not stop me. I went in there and excelled. I have not failed in any business that I have embarked upon, and this one will not be an exception.
Even talking about competition, I can tell you that I have never competed with anybody. I am always competing with myself. I try to turn out quality products and allow the market to judge. So, I am competing with the market for acceptance, rather than the people producing the same thing as I am because the market is the ultimate judge.”
According to him, his goal, apart from putting Nigeria on the map of vehicle manufacturing countries, is to stop Nigerians from buying fairly used vehicles, popularly known as Tokunbo, as is now the case.
He said that with the commissioning of the plant, Nigerians could now beat their chest and say, “this is our own,” just as the Americans, the Chinese, the Germans and the Japanese. Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company in Nnewi, Anambra State, and Daily Sun caught up with this rare entrepreneur and he spoke about his foray into business, his challenges and successes.
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