Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, Nigeria’s main domestic vehicle assembly company has shut down production due to forex related issues.
Investigation reveals that Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) cannot buy imported automotive components, a situation that has left its Vehicles without engines – an apt metaphor for the problems bedeviling Nigeria since the advent of the Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
This revelation came as GDP figures on Wednesday confirmed that Nigeria’s economy slid into its first recession in 25 years in the second quarter, shrinking by 2.06 percent after a 0.36 percent contraction in the first three months of the year.
“Production had stopped as we are waiting for the imported items for which there is a forex issue,” chairman Innocent Chukwuma said at the firm’s plant at Nnewi, in southern Nigeria.
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Launched in 2010, IVM last year raised its annual production target for 2016 from 4,000 to 6,000 vehicles due to a “Made in Nigeria” campaign that generated strong sales to the police, state agencies and churches.
Those ambitions are now looking shaky if promises of government assistance fail to materialize, Chukwuma said.
“I believe they are doing something but if they can’t do anything we’ll lay off some workers,” Chukwuma said.