FG’ll spend N900bn on CNG vehicle conversion in three years – Report

The Federal Government may spend N900bn on vehicle conversion under the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative over the next three years, investigation by Saturday According has shown.

The P-CNGi’s Programme Execution Coordinator, Folarin Oworu, announced recently at a rally held at the Mando Inter State Terminal, Kaduna that the initiative targets 250,000 vehicle conversions per year starting in 2025.

The kits and conversion costs are valued at N1.2m per vehicle, amounting to a total of N900bn to convert approximately 750,000 petrol or diesel-powered vehicles to run on Compressed Natural Gas between 2025 and 2027.

Already, for this year, the Federal Government will spend an average of N36bn to convert 30,000 vehicles to run on CNG in the next 90 days.

The move aims to ensure the adoption of CNG as an alternative fuel for transportation in the country.

The Project Director and Chief Executive Officer of P-CNGi, Michael Oluwagbemi, stated this during the Park to Park CNG Mobilisation programme at Ojota Park in Lagos last week.

Oluwagbemi said President Bola Tinubu was taking steps to ensure transport workers used CNG to replace high-priced petrol and diesel, believing this would reduce the cost of transportation and, by extension, the rising cost of food items.

The P-CNGi boss said the President was interested in distributing one million CNG kits to commercial drivers across Nigeria as palliatives.

“Today, we are here with conversion kits. We have bought over 30,000 of these kits, mainly for distribution in the next 90 days. This will ensure that commercial transport workers can benefit directly from the palliative of the Federal Government. For this reason, we are here in Lagos.

“Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states are also here. We will all benefit from this immediate palliative. The President has told us that this is not just to end with 30,000 kits; the target is one million kits. We want to make sure all of you can benefit from this government initiative,” he stated.

Oluwagbemi announced that the government was building more CNG stations where drivers could buy the commodity at below N250/kg.

“The era of buying N750, N800, or N1,000/litre fuel is over. We are not doing that again. We will start using the gas under our feet so that we can buy it at N230/kg,” he stated.

However, an investigation by Saturday According revealed that the Federal Government would be doling out N900bn to convert no fewer than 750,000 vehicles in three years if it sustains its target of 250,000 vehicles per year starting next year.

Recall that in a statement issued on April 21, 2024, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the Federal Government was ready to launch about 2,700 CNG-powered buses and tricycles before May 29, 2024, when President Tinubu marked one year in office.

In the statement titled, ‘Presidential CNG Initiative Set for Rollout,’ Onanuga said the Federal Government would deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refueling sites spread across 18 states before the end of 2024.

He said the Federal Government was targeting the purchase of “5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses, and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, alongside spurring the development of CNG refueling stations and electric charging stations.”

With necessary tax and duty waivers approved by President Tinubu in December 2023, Onanuga said, “The P-CNGi committee is partnering the private sector to deliver the promise on the initiative.”

He added, “The private sector has responded with over $50m in actual investments in refueling stations, conversion centres, and mother stations.

“In all, over 600 buses are targeted for production in the first phase, which will be accomplished this year. A new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will assemble thousands of tricycles.”