Chief Innocent Chukwuma is the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing, IVM, a foremost automobile maker in Nigeria.
Read excerpts of the interview here
In this exclusive interview after a facility tour of his Nnewi automobile factory, Chukwuma reveals the secrets behind his success in the automobile industry, why he has never failed in any business ventures, his major challenges, his new factory in Imo State and planned partnership with a foreign company. Excerpts:
Some Nigerians still think that Innoson is just an assembling plant and not a car production company. What is your status?
You are here now and you have seen things yourself. Let me use this opportunity to say this once again; Innoson does not assemble vehicles, we manufacture. We build 100 percent vehicle body here and over 60 percent of the products used in manufacturing the vehicle are gotten from Nigeria.
We make all the carcass of all our vehicles here. We only import some engines and electrical components but produce all the plastic parts here. We have produced many new vehicles according to the demands of our customers and what they need those vehicles for. Even if they need what we do not have, we make the mould and produce their request and to specifications. That is why we are a vehicle manufacturing company, not assembling company.
Despite the challenging terrain of the automobile industry in Nigeria, you have succeeded in making a name for yourself. What’s your driving force?
Yes, I started this business from the scratch. So, it may not be out of place to say that I have made a name for myself. However, I still believe that I haven’t reached where I want to be. It might interest you to know that I never fail in any business I have ventured into.
My personal advice
The first thing is to find out the reason Innoson brands are not the darling of the people. Take a survey to know if it is more expensive than the imported cars, and if so, why?
One of the reason for the high cost (if that’s the case) could be cost of production. As it is, he is getting no incentives from government like subsidy on essential inputs. This means he cannot compete with his foreign counterparts who are enjoying subsidised cost of production.
Secondly, it may be the problem of quality. What then do we do to improve the quality and make it comparable to the imported counterparts?
These two questions can be safely answered by the WealthMarket.
If the problem is of cost of production, we can sign a production contract with him to produce for us in a market concession arrangement. He will get his inputs from us while selling to us alone.
Our 1 million car project can accommodate this sort of production.
On the other hand, if the problem arises from low quality of the cars, then our FEPCO can come handy to help improve the quality of inputs and ensure the upgrade of what is currently in existence, so that he can produce cars of higher quality.
This it can do by getting quality input, the right technology ( either locally or internationally), and the best managers. Once quality is achieved, we can do affirmative action for the locally made cars. We only sell the locally made cars or we set the prices to less than their foreign counterparts.
For instance, those that buy cars made by Innoson can enjoy special incentives such as discounts on purchases and so on.
This means we have successfully solved the problem of quality and price at the same time. And it will drive market traffic towards Innoson brands.