Gentle and cool billionaire businessman, Chief (Dr.) Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma is no doubt one of the businessmen that the country can be proud of. He was recently honoured by Vanguard Newspaper as Most Innovative Industrialist of the Year at the event held in Lagos. After the event, the chairman of Innoson Motors granted a short interview to a number of journalists. Enjoy the excerpts… 

Congratulations on this award. How do you see the award?

In fact, I am more than overwhelmed for this award, this is the first award to be given to me by Vanguard Newspaper. I really thank God and I pray that God will continue to bless them in whatever they do. Yes, I see the award as another milestone in the history of my business. Also, I believe that with this award, we will be encouraged to do more in terms of service delivery to all our clients and to the country as a whole.

What lesson can you derive from this award given to you today?

Lots of lessons but the important one is to keep doing what you know best, do your best and leave the rest for God. So, I think Innoson Motors has done its best; that is why Vanguard Newspaper is honouring us, we thank them.

You are one of the leaders in auto world business, is government doing enough to encourage stakeholders in that line of business?

Well, the government is doing its best but we still need more support but take for example in our plant in Enugu where we assemble motors, we do not rely on PHCN to generate our power. If government can come with adequate power supply the rate at which we buy diesel will somehow reduce. So, I would not say the government is not trying but they need to do more.

What makes Innoson Motors unique in  auto world business?

Yes, Innoson Motors is so unique in so many ways because we have introduced new strategies in our services, our customers are our greatest asset, if you are doing business with us and you want your product to be assembled right in your house we do that now, while others may not give you such privilege. Yes, our plant is in Enugu but if any condition arises, we can assemble outside Enugu, we can even do it here in Lagos, our customer service is nothing but the best, we have trained engineers that handle our automobiles, lots of innovations have been introduced into our services.

The issue of durability and affordability, do you put that into consideration in your service? 

Yes, we believe in quality not quantity and I know an average person will like to entrust his/her money into something durable, we take this into consideration in all our services.