Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma was born on the 1st of October, 1961. He is the founder and CEO of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing, Nigeria’s first indigenous automobile manufacturing company and he also works as a computer science teacher in Haydon School, Pinner, United Kingdom.
After secondary school, he waited to be admitted into the University which unfortunately did not work out. While waiting for the admission list, he assisted his brother in his medicine store, and in the process, he found out he had a knack for trading so when the admission list did not favor him, he pursued the trading. His brother took him to apprentice under Chief Romanus Eze Onwuka. After one year, he came back and his brother gave him 3,000 Naira to start trading motorcycle spare parts under Gabros International.
In 1981, he separated from his brother and started trading Honda motorcycle spare parts, then moved on to importing motorcycles. He was the first to introduce the Jincheng brand of motorcycles in Nigeria.
Later on, Innoson made an observation that Nigerians buy and drive foreign used cars due to the high cost of brand-new ones. He then had a vision of making brand new ones that would be affordable and that vision led to the founding of the Innoson group of companies.
Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing has quickly risen and become a household name in Nigeria and all of West Africa. He mentioned that his company produces 10,000 various brands of cars annually. In an interview, he stated, “what we do here is pure manufacturing of vehicles and not assemblage. Our vehicles go through quality control before they are pushed to the public”. He says only 40% of his manufacturing materials are being sourced outside.
He has received several awards and was conferred the Nigerian national honor of Commander of the order of the Niger (CON) by the President, Muhammadu Buhari. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in business administration by the Enugu State University of Science and Technology.
He has succeeded in creating job opportunities for over 7,000 people. His subsidiary companies are Innoson manufacturing, Innoson tech and Innoson company limited.