The Chairman of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM), Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, has said that his company was in discussion with the Federal Government(FG) to produce ventilators to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
According to him “We are already having a fruitful discussion with the government on for my company to produce ventilators to fight covid-19,” he said.
Earlier on the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said the federal government had opened discussions with Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company and other key indigenous vehicle manufacturing companies with a view to producing ventilators in the country.
In the same vein the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engineer Mansur Ahmed, disclosed that manufacturers had increased Nigeria’s domestic production capacity for face masks from two million masks in February to 27 million now.
The minister, who updated journalists on Covid-19 pandemic and its implications for the manufacturing sector in Abuja, said the government received a proposal from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company to produce ventilators and similar proposals had been submitted by other indigenous auto manufacturers and that the various proposals are being considered.
“We are also engaging our indigenous car manufacturers at this time to prepare them to tweak their operations to begin the manufacture of ‘Made in Nigeria’ ventilators – critical medical equipment in the fight against the virus,” he said.
The ministry had last month set up a committee on “the sustainable production and delivery of essential commodities” during the Covid-19 pandemic.