Nigeria’s first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicle manufacturer, Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company Ltd (IVM), based in Nnewi, Anambra State, has built a new multi-billion naira plant. This facility will produce buses and heavy-duty trucks with CNG engines.
The plant is almost 90% complete and will soon be commissioned. It can produce 30,000 vehicles annually.
Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman of the Innoson Group, shared this news in a statement. The company, in partnership with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), also plans to build a plant for tractors and farm implements.
Alfred Nwosu, a media consultant and Director at Innoson Group, issued the statement. It responded to an appeal by farmers led by Chief Ebere Orji Odi, urging Dr. Chukwuma and IVM to produce tractors to boost mechanized farming and the economy.
The company explained that due to the high demand for CNG vehicles since 2022, they started building this new plant dedicated to CNG vehicles.
The factory will produce 30,000 CNG vehicles annually in one shift. It is almost ready and will be inaugurated soon.
IVM’s range now includes medium, city, and inter-city buses, SUVs, family cars, 4×4 pickups, military vehicles, ambulances, and fire trucks. Some of these vehicles have been exported to Sierra Leone, Niger, Congo, Ghana, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.
In 2022, anticipating the fuel subsidy withdrawal, Innoson began manufacturing CNG vehicles, marking another milestone.