The Federal Government has unveiled a significant initiative to provide a 50% subsidy on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicle conversion kits, aiming to benefit members of road transport unions nationwide.
Michael Oluwagbemi, the Programme Director and Chief Executive of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, made this announcement during a stakeholders engagement session held in Kaduna on Tuesday.
Oluwagbemi highlighted that the CNG initiative aims to alleviate the impact of fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians while creating new investment opportunities in the gas sector for both domestic and global investors.
He emphasized that the subsidized conversion program aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s vision to have one million vehicles converted to CNG by 2027, promoting cleaner energy and reducing carbon emissions.
In addition, he announced that the Federal Government had already acquired over 20,000 conversion kits, which would be promptly distributed for the conversion incentive program.
Furthermore, he mentioned that the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNGI) had identified eight conversion centers across four key locations, namely Kwara, Lagos, Abuja, and Rivers. These centers would serve as pilot locations for the program, where vehicle owners can have their vehicles converted to run on CNG efficiently.
Oluwagbemi said, “We are launching what we called the Conversion Incentive Programme with members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers of Nigeria, Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria and National Association of Road Transport Owners being our immediate focus. This is because they are the operators in the road transport sector providing 90 per cent of the transportation in the country to members of the public.
“We will be making the conversion kits available to them at 50% discount and we are also ensuring that the installation cost is free. We are already negotiating already with our partners who will initiate that project in the next week.
“We have already identified eight conversion centers in four states, namely Kwara, Lagos FCT and Rivers that will pilot the programme. Immediately after that, we will start expanding to other conversion vent that we have identified and they are 120 of them across the country.”
The Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, in his keynote address on the occasion, lauded the Federal Government’s initiative in setting a phase in switching from petrol powered vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas powered vehicles particularly the buses category
The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Works, Ibrahim Hamza, said transportation remained the backbone of the nation’s economy.
“Transportation is one of the major promoters of our socio-economic activities which deals with the movement of persons, goods and freight from one point to another,” he said.
