By Ken Chiwendu
The Federal Government will launch its Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative in May ahead of President Bola Tinubu’s first anniversary, presidential aide,Bayo Onanuga said on Sunday.
The buses which were part of reforms announced by President Bola Tinubu last year to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal aimed to deliver cheaper,safer and more climate – friendly energy.
The government had assured the purchase of 5500 CNG Vehicles,100 Electric buses, and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits,but,
“In all, over 600 buses are targeted for production in the first phase that will be accomplished this year,” he said in a late Sunday statement.
“A new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will assemble thousands of tricycles. The SKD parts manufactured by the Chinese company LUOJIA in partnership with its local partner to support the consortium of local suppliers of CNG tricycles are set for shipment to Nigeria and are expected to arrive early in May. About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024.” Onanuga said.
According to him,“With necessary tax and duty waivers approved by President Tinubu in December 2023, the PCNGI committee is partnering with the private sector to deliver the promise on the initiative. The private sector has responded with over $50 million in actual investments in refuelling stations, conversion centres, and mother stations,”
He said for those who want to convert their petrol-powered buses and taxis.the federal government would enable them to migrate to CNG at subsidised rates.
“Thousands of conversion kits for petrol-powered buses and taxis that want to migrate to CNG are also ready with CNG cylinders,”
“The Federal Government intends to provide them at subsidized rates, especially to commercial vehicle drivers to bring down the cost of public transportation.”
The launch of the buses and other incentives would assuage the difficulty experienced by Nigerians if religiously managed.
