On Thursday, the federal government announced that there will be no costs associated with switching commercial vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel to compressed natural gas. After concluding contracts with several businesses engaged in the conversion of gasoline and diesel-powered cars to run on compressed natural gas (CNG), it made this announcement in Abuja.
It was stated that this will help commercial transporters who are members of several unions, such as the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria.
Following the government agency’s signing of agreements with multiple enterprises in Abuja, Michael Oluwagbemi, the Chief Executive and Programme Director of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, revealed this information to journalists.
“Today we’ve just signed with five partners with us here in the Federal Capital Territory that are participating in the Conversion Incentive Programme.
“The programme is tackling the barrier to Nigerian commercial transport operators to convert from PMS (petrol) to gas. Most of them have said that the cost of conversion is expensive, and so what we are doing here today is basically to respond to that concern.
“What is the government doing about it? First and foremost, for commercial operators that are unionised, I’m talking about the members of RTEAN, NARTO, and NURTW, through their unions they can benefit 100 per cent discount. That is, they will get the kits for free and installation will also be done for them for free.
“And this is going to be done through these certified conversion workshops that we are beginning to identify. We’ve identified about 123 of them, five of them are here with us today that we are going to be working with here in Abuja. As we expand across the country we will be activating more of them,” Oluwagbemi stated.
The ride-share operators were the second category of commercial transporters, according to him.
“So if you are a vehicle rider that is operating under Uber, Bolt, Lag-Ride, Move, etc, you will be able to also benefit from this programme. Today we have Bolt here with us that is signing and we hope to add the others very soon. Lag-Ride has already signed up and we are going to send the agreement next week.
“They will be able to benefit from a 50 per cent write-off on the equipment and then they will get installation for free. So that means the government will pay for these conversion workshops to install the equipment you will get at 50 per cent off.
“And because of the arrangement we have with these companies, you’ll be able to also get to pay little by little. So you’re not paying any money upfront on day one,” Oluwagbemi further stated.
Nigerians would begin paying less for transportation if this initiative is implemented, according to the P-CNGI director.
“We have over 20,000 kits that are going to be available through this program immediately for the next three months,” he stated. They will be dispersed across the states that have some level of CNG capability. There are roughly twenty-five states.
“This will ensure that the citizens within these states, the unions and ride-share operators would-be participants of the 20,000 potential kits that will be made available under this programme. The 20,000 kits were made available under the palliative initiative that was budgeted for last year.
“But the National Assembly has made additional funding available this year, and we will be rolling out additional kits once the necessary acquisition of materials is made available to us by the third or fourth quarter of this year.”
“It (the agreement) is saying that in return for giving you these kits, you will also pass on the savings to ordinary Nigerians,” he remarked in reference to the agreement that was inked in Abuja. Thus, we will start to make a difference in the transportation sector.
“We have a very strong monitoring mechanism around conversion as well as the enforcement of reduced pricing for Nigerians,” Oluwagbemi responded when asked how the government will keep an eye on the conversion centers. After they are correctly transformed, the Nigerian gas vehicle tracking system makes sure we can follow them.
“Secondly, within the framework of the agreement we are signing with them, we’ve agreed on some significant pass-on of those savings that they will be realising. As they realise the savings, they are under obligation to report to us and make sure that the savings are passed on to ordinary Nigerians so that we do not defeat the purpose of the palliative.”
