Innoson Motors stops production, sack of workers imminent due to Dollars scarcity

At a factory in southeast Nigeria, dozens of new white buses stand at the end of the production line, apparently ready to take on some of Africa’s toughest roads.

Unfortunately for Nigeria’s main domestic vehicle assembly firm, they are going nowhere for now.

In an economy starved of dollars because of the slump in oil prices, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) cannot buy imported components, leaving the buses without engines – a metaphor for the problems afflicting Africa’s most populous nation - Nigeria.

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Innoson Motors - IVM FOX

When Nigeria, on October 3, 2013, announced the introduction of a new automotive policy aimed at discouraging the importation of wholly assembled automobile and encouraging local manufacturing, it seemed like a tall dream. Innoson Motors, an indigenous company, last week, unveiled a new brand of vehicles, building on local assembly successes by Hyundai and Nissan.

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited founded by Nigerian industrialist, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, unveiled its new cars – IVM Umu, IVM Umu and IVM Uzo- manufactured at the company’s Nnewi plant in Anambra State, South east Nigeria.