Based in Nnewi in Anambra State, IVM is Nigeria's only indigenous car assembly manufacturing plant and prides itself on being at the forefront of the country's industrialisation drive. Yesterday, the company signed the MoU to extend this to research and production of spare parts for Naf fighter jets.
Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, Nigeria's chief of air staff, said that the collaboration between the company and the air force had kept its jet fleet running for months now. Air Marshal Abubakar, who was represented by the chief of policy and planning, Air Vice-Marshal James Gbum, said the MoU would further solidify the collaboration, improve local content and engineering as well as save the country a lot of foreign exchange used in importing the expensive parts.
“Our war efforts will be in vain if we don’t do something to ensure we get spare parts because some of our fighter aircrafts that have formed the back-bone of our struggle against Boko Haram, were once down due to lack of spare parts. The Nigerian Air Force later discovered that Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company at Nnewi, Anambra State is very capable of collaborating to achieve the required standards of overhauling our break assemblies.”
Following the discovery, Marshal Abubakar immediately ordered that the Naf's research and development cell in Kaji start researching into this break assembly overhaul. They went ahead and carried out the research but the first proto-type they brought could not pass the test, so work is expected to continue with a goal of overcoming this.
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