The Federal Government, through the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGi), has rolled out 10,000 conversion kits across the country, out of the 1 million targeted by 2027.
President Bola Tinubu ordered the distribution of one million free CNG conversion kits to commercial vehicles transporting people, food, and goods, and the available price of N230 per litre of gas.
The PCNGi kicked off in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kaduna, and Abuja through the partnership with organisations like NIPCO, Autogig, Dana Motors and Portland Gas Limited among others.
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“As part of our initiative, we have created the conversion incentive program geared towards ensuring that the CNG conversion is pushed out, especially through the mass transit and commercial vehicles route,” Omoh Imokhuede, Commercial Operations Manager at the PCNGi, told the press during the tour of some of the facilities in Lagos on Saturday, September 14.
He said: “To kickstart or activate this, we have started off deploying 10,000 kits, and we’ll start that over the next couple of weeks. We actually kickstarted that today with 1,000 kits going out to different locations in Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna, Abuja, and of course, Lagos.
“We are here today as part of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative set up by Mr. President to create not only the platform for CNG conversion, but also to ensure that CNG is adopted, accepted and implemented.”
The PCNGi initiative offers a cheaper and cleaner alternative to petrol, currently sells for over N900 per litre. The introduction of CNG as a fuel source aligns with the government’s drive towards energy diversification and is designed to bring immediate relief to Nigerians, especially those who depend on transport for their livelihood.
“Energy diversification in the transportation sector is key to eradicating poverty,” said Kayode Opeifa, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Mobility and Access Development (CenSMAD). “And this current initiative is one of those that really speaks to access for mobility and a lot of the sustainable development goals.”
Opeifa appealed to Nigerians in the commercial transportation sector to show up and convert, “so that they can have access to cheaper fuel.”
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“When this is done, you are eliminating poverty and improving livelihood while making people have access to infrastructure and government services. They can now go to hospital without spending much,” he added.
Meanwhile, the partners have said that the drive for CNG adoption in Nigeria has come to stay and they will support the government in achieving the set goals.
“I believe that this partnership will continue and we will see how best we can assist the government in pushing it as we have to leverage on it for our energy security purpose,” said Tope Bukola-Ojo, MD/CEO of Autogig International Resources Limited.
He added that this kind of partnership can only bring support to a lot of Nigerians experiencing the high increase in petroleum products. “It is the way to go. And the fact that everybody wants to experience a greener environment is one of the reasons why we have to push this.”
