The Federal Government has launched its conversion of vehicles from petrol to the innovative Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) system, gas which it said is cheaper.
The CNG, the government added, would reduce the pressure on petrol and eventually bring the price down, thereby reducing the cost in transportation that would culminate in affordable cost of living for the masses.
Speaking during the launch in Benin City over the weekend and the signing of agreements with partners that would make the project work, the Head, Commercial of Presidential CNG Initiative (Pi-CNG), Tosin Coker, said the same ceremony was simultaneously launched in five other states as part of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s efforts to mitigate the sufferings posed by the continuous increase in the price of petrol.
He said the project had one million vehicles across the country as its target, adding that the conversion would be at no cost to the owner of the vehicles.
According to him, “Mr. President has directed that we incentivize all commercial vehicles in the country.
“We have a target to convert a million vehicles across the nation in partnership with the transport associations; they can come to Pi-CNG partners’ conversion centres and have their vehicles converted at no cost to them including the cost of conversion.
“This is a very laudable policy and initiative directive by the president.
“The idea is that as the government is making this available it will reduce the cost of petrol, the cost of transportation and they can pass those savings on to the masses.”
Coker stated that during the conceptualization of the project about a year ago, President Tinubu established a steering committee with three core mandates: to incentivize the project, enable financing infrastructure, and regulate the new scheme.
He added that partners have been secured to provide financing, making it available to corporates, civil servants, salary earners, individuals, and companies interested in investing in this revolutionary initiative.
To regulate the project, Coker mentioned the establishment of the Nigerian Gas Vehicle Monitoring System, a product of collaboration between Pi-CNG and the Nigerian Automobile Development and Design Council (NADDC), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), and the National Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Part of the regulation he said is to ensure that “All vehicles that are powered by gas, all organizations that deal with gas conversion centres, with filling stations will be regulated.
“It is a safety and regulatory body to the extent that we are able to track every single conversion kit that has gone into any vehicle, we can track it so that there is visibility and take the incidences to zero.
“The idea is to have zero incidences in gas vehicle monitoring incidences and perchance, if there is any incidence, we can track it everywhere it is.
“Any vehicle that comes to refill in gas, will not be refilled without being checked so if checked and your vehicle is compliant, you refill but if you are not compliant, you are not allowed to refill and if the gas station refills, there will be sanctions.
“Mr, President has seen that as a nation, we are more of a gas producing nation before being an oil producing nation, we have far more gas reserves than we even know and unfortunately for many decades we have been flaring making us the second largest waster of this product behind Russia.”
Coker called for collaboration and support from state governments and other stakeholders like the Edo State Government, which the Commissioner for Mining and Energy, Enaholo Ojiefoh said had for over three years started its own initiative for the use of alternatives to petrol by its citizens.
