For Nigeria to sustain the campaign for using compressed natural gas-powered (CNG) vehicles, the Federal Government needs to support indigenous automobile companies to assemble CNG vehicles locally, Taiwo Shittu, managing director of Lanre Shittu Motors, has said.
Shittu disclosed this in Lagos recently while speaking with journalists on the company’s readiness to flood the market with locally assembled full CNG buses.
President Bola Tinubu launched the Presidential CNG Initiative (Pi-CNG) in October 2023 after fuel subsidy removal and the initiative aimed at delivering cheaper, safer, and more climate-friendly automobiles.
According to President Tinubu, using natural gas to power the nation’s transportation industry would reduce costs, enhance productivity and save the nation trillions of naira spent on petrol and diesel importation.
On the features and benefits of the CNG mass transit buses, Shittu said the vehicles are 100 percent CNG and assembled in Nigeria.
“What we are selling is an engine built on CNG. It is better than a hybrid diesel engine and a converted diesel engine. The engine in our buses will run over a million miles. We are investing heavily in the CNG project with the support of our banks and rolling out 100 units in the first phase.
“We expect the government to identify companies that can sustain the CNG campaign and support them through funding, grants and tax incentives,” he suggested.
Read also: Lanre Shittu Motors unveils CNG buses, mobile refilling facility
Taiwo expressed full support of Lanre Shittu Motors for the Federal Government’s CNG initiative with the belief that using CNG buses for mass transportation is the only way to save the country from growing inflation, especially with the removal of petrol subsidies.
He listed the local content components of the LSM-branded vehicles put at 20 percent including glass, seats, fabrications and lube.
“We have 43 years of experience in this business and parts worth over N2 billion to support this initiative. We are building a new facility in Ogun State to expand our operations. We are also working at manufacturing batteries,” he said.
Also speaking, Lukman Shittu, deputy managing director of LSM, said the company supports green energy initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels and make the environment safe.
About 70 percent, he said, would be saved on operation cost, with CNG being sold at N200-N230/kg, while diesel is sold from N1,200 to N1400/litre, depending on the state.
Lukman said the company is deploying mobile CNG refilling stations to different locations in the country.
“We want support to deploy mobile CNG stations across different locations,” he said.
He said LSM is already working on some electric charging stations apart from the CNG initiative.
“We have the Lekki site that would serve as an auto hub; it will have the CNG refilling station as well. It is almost completed. We have two projects that are coming onboard including building a solar panel electric charging station and the CNG refuelling station. Lekki is the pilot phase, and we are ready to partner with state governments,” he added.
