FG offers free CNG conversion for commercial vehicles

FG offers free CNG conversion for commercial vehicles

The Federal Government, on Thursday, declared that the
conversion of petrol and diesel-powered commercial vehicles to run on
Compressed Natural Gas is going to be free of charge.

 

It declared this in Abuja after signing agreements with
various companies involved in the conversion of petrol and diesel-powered
vehicles to operate on CNG.

 

It said commercial transporters under their different unions
including the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, National Union
of Road Transport Workers, and Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners,
among others, would benefit from this.

 

The Programme Director/Chief Executive, Presidential
Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, disclosed this to
journalists after the government agency signed agreements with various
companies in Abuja.

 

He said, “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.

 

He said the second group of commercial transporters were the
ride-share operators.

 

“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 stated.

 

The P-CNGI director said through the implementation of this
programme, Nigerians would start paying less for transportation.

 

He said, “We have over 20,000 kits that are immediately
going to be available in the next three months through this programme. We will
be distributing them across the states that have some CNG capacity or the
other. The states are about 25 in number.

 

“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.”

 

On the agreement that was signed in Abuja, he said, “It
(agreement) is saying that in return for giving you these kits, you will also
pass on the savings to ordinary Nigerians. So we will begin to have some impact
in terms of transportation.”

 

Asked to state how the government would monitor the
conversion centres, Oluwagbemi said, “We have a very strong monitoring
mechanism around conversion as well as the enforcement of reduced pricing for
Nigerians. The Nigerian gas vehicle monitoring system ensures that they are
properly converted and then we can track 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.”

Source: FG offers free CNG conversion for commercial vehicles

 - NigerianEye
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