Innoson Motors, Nigeria’s leading indigenous automobile manufacturer, has said that it will be exporting its passenger car brands to West African countries.

Chairman of Innoson Motors, Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, disclosed this at the Nnewi plant of the company during a brief preview of the company’s passenger cars to mark the concrete takeoff of the auto policy.

He said that Innoson-badged vehicles are genuinely indigenous, noting that apart from being made in Nigeria they bear a Nigerian name and not the monogram of any foreign auto brand.

According to him, Innoson plant was set up long before the introduction of the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) and against all odds at a time when importation of fully built-up vehicles was an easier and far more lucrative option. He added that the coming of the auto policy, four years after the production lines were officially commissioned by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in Nnewi in 2010, would help the growth and development of the local industry.

“In the Nigerian auto industry, there is no other made-in-Nigeria vehicle that bears a local name apart from Innoson. Others are foreign brands, though made in Nigeria. If you go to Europe, America and Asia or anywhere outside this country, you won’t see any vehicle called Innoson, because the name does not exist in any other place in the world except here,” He said.

The products which are to be exported include Fox Sedan and Amazon car brands and will be exported to Republic of Benin and Ghana, as soon as the vehicles are finally rolled out from the company’s plant in Nnewi, Anambra State.

The New Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) introduced by the Federal Governement last year is hoped to help transform the Nigerian automotive industry and attract investment into the sector, as the Auto Sector has been identified as a key component of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP). The NIRP is a 5 year programme developed by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investments to diversify Nigeria’s economy and revenues through industry and to increase manufacturing’s contribution to GDP from 4% today, to 6% by 2015, and finally above 10% by 2017.

NAIDP aims to curtail Nigeria’s almost total dependence on imports and to meet a significant proportion of its demand through domestic production.

Descartes: .

Idrismusty97: Modified that before some bigots derail this lovely thread. I hope the mods are active.

Idrismusty97: This is how Toyota started .