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The Federal Government has commenced the rollout of Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses and tricycles starting from Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
On April 21, 2024, the Presidency had revealed that it was ready to launch about 2,700 CNG-powered buses and tricycles before May 29, 2024, when President Bola Tinubu turns one year in office.
The report stated that the Federal Government was set to deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of 2024.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement he signed titled ‘Presidential CNG initiative set for rollout.’
When contacted on Wednesday to provide updates on the development, Onanuga stated that the Federal Government had kick-started the deployment in Ilorin.
“There was a launch in Ilorin Kwara State today (Wednesday) by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak. Ilorin launch was a refuelling and conversion centre.
“CNG buses and tricycles were also unveiled. The CNG vehicle assemblers have begun the rollout, beginning from Ilorin.
“The inauguration began today in Ilorin. It started with a conversion centre before they unveiled some CNG buses and tricycles. They have not given a date for Abuja. But the process started today,” Onanuga stated.
Earlier the Programme Director/Chief Executive of, Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, said the vehicles would hit Nigerian roads before June.
He also explained that the potential value of the CNG market in Nigeria in the next five years should exceed $10bn, adding that the sector would grow by 1,000 per cent this year as the buses and tricycles hit Nigerian roads.
Oluwagbemi said the deployment of CNG-powered buses would have a significant impact on food prices, stressing that the initiative would cut down food inflation, as the cost of transporting agricultural produce would reduce.
Asked when would the government roll out the first set of CNG buses, tricycles and bikes for public transportation, the PCNGI coordinator replied, “We expect these to be on the road before June. Bikes are not part of the programme. CNG bikes don’t exist currently.”
On the number of local vehicle plants pencilled down to participate and benefit from the project, he said, “The current programme fund is to cover just the initial pilot and at least four local manufacturing plants and 10 conversion workshops with refuelling sites are benefitting locally from it.”
In October 2023, about five months after the removal of the petrol subsidy, President Tinubu launched the Presidential CNG Initiative to deliver cheaper, safer and more climate-friendly energy.
The CNG Initiative was designed to deliver compressed natural gas, especially for mass transit.
The Federal Government earmarked N100bn (part of the N500bn palliative budget) to purchase 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 Electric buses and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, with plans to develop CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations nationwide.
The government had said the initiative would ease the burden of the increased pump price on the masses.
Also in April this year, the Presidency provided a detailed explanation of plans by the government to deploy CNG buses and tricycles.
“After months of detailed planning and background work, the committee driving the initiative is set to deliver on President Tinubu’s vision and promise,” Onanuga had stated.
Part of his announcement at the time was the creation of a new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that would assemble the tricycles while Brilliant EV would assemble electric vehicles when it receives the semi-knocked components.
The Presidency had explained further, “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 expected to arrive early in May.
“In collaboration with the private sector, the PCNGI is set to deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of this year.”
It said the four plants owned by JET, Mikano, Mojo, and Brilliant EV located in various parts of the country were involved in the assembly of the semi-knocked-down components of the CNG buses, Onanuga revealed.
Ononuga said, “JET, which has received the SKD parts is coupling the buses in Lagos and is working towards delivering 200 units before the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration.
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“Brilliant EV will assemble electric vehicles. It is awaiting the SKD parts, which will arrive in due course. The electric vehicles it will produce are meant for states such as Kano and Borno, which do not have access to CNG for now.
“They will also be available in key Nigerian cities and university campuses. It must be noted that soon-to-be-completed gas pipeline projects initiated by the Buhari administration and being completed by NNPCL (the AKK Pipeline) will take gas into the hinterlands of North East and North West where there is a current paucity.”
Onanuga said the deployment of CNG buses and tricycles and the vision to get at least one million natural gas-propelled vehicles on our roads by 2027 will mark a major energy transition in our country’s transportation industry.
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, he explained further.
On Wednesday, Oluwagbemi said the CNG market in Nigeria has a potential value of over $10bn.
When asked what is the potential value of the CNG market in Nigeria in the next five years, he replied, “More than $10bn value in Nigeria.”
On the expected growth rate, Oluwagbemi said, “We expect a 1,000 per cent growth rate this year and YoY (year-on-year) average of 100-200 per cent growth rates in the next five years.”
He said aside from creating jobs, the CNG vehicles deployment would particularly affect food prices in Nigeria, as it would cut down food inflation.
Asked to state what other sectors of the economy will the initiative impact, he said, “Food particularly; price inflation of foodstuff will be curtailed by reduced pricing of fuel used to fuel transportation.
“Other areas including upstream activities in oil and gas will benefit from more demand and even overall job creation and supply of gas will drive industrialisation.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, declared on Wednesday that the adoption of CNG by the Federal Government would reduce the sufferings of Nigerians.
He declared this in Abuja during the commencement of the training programme for 50 Nigerian youths by the Federal Institute of Industrial Research on autogas conversion of vehicles and generators.
The 50 trainees are to train other people on how to convert petrol-powered vehicles and generators to run on CNG, as the scheme is in fulfilment of the President’s promise to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
Speaking at the event, the minister said, “We are doing this today as part of the days for celebration of President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office because of great innovations that have been going on in the country.
“With the removal of fuel subsidy, you can see this conversion of PMS to CNG is what we are gaining. What we are doing today here is the training. We are training people who will train others in the conversion of PMS (powered vehicles) to CNG. And they have done it before in FIIRO.
“And during that period, part of what we did was that they converted one Toyota Corolla from PMS to CNG. And then there was another Corolla that was PMS. So we set two of them to a battle. While it took the CNG vehicle about N11,000 to get to Ibadan, it took the PMS car about N65,000 to get to Ibadan.
“So you can see this is the palliative, the kind of palliative we are looking at. The cost of transportation, even foodstuff and everything, logistics, we are trying to reduce it.”
Nnaji stated that after the three-day training, FIIRO would take the trainees to the six geo-political zones in Nigeria to expand the services rendered by the trainees.
“As you can see inside, there are some of the materials for the conversion that are already there. They will train the 50 people we have today in the different zones. So today we have done this one to showcase to the people that this is possible,” the minister stated.
The Director-General, FIIRO, Jumamai Tutuwa, said the agency can train 20,000 youths on how to convert a petrol-powered vehicle to run on CNG.
“This launching came as a result of the first position we got during the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology Expo in March 2024. And we thought it wise because it’s not everybody that will have money to go and learn how to convert their petrol vehicle to CNG.
“So what we promised that day was that FIIRO can train 20,000 youths on how to convert a PMS vehicle to CNG. So we started with Abuja and you know that we have well-equipped zonal offices in the six geopolitical zones.
“And using those our zonal offices, we are going to train all, in fact we will go around the 36 states and make sure people use it as their means of financial promotion. We all know that when our president removed the fuel subsidy, everybody started crying.
“But this CNG, frankly speaking, is going to bring down the suffering of most Nigerians because even the transportation of food items escalated as a result of the high price of petrol,” the FIIRO boss stated.
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