The activation and deployment of sufficient structures for effective implementation of the Federal Government’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative will greatly ensure the realisation of government’s projected savings of N2 trillion monthly, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said.
It stated that its members across the country had offered their filling stations for the conversion of the fuel powered vehicles to CNGcompliant so as to ensure the efficient, effective and fast realisation of the project.
National Publicity Relations Officer, IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, identified the strategies while speaking in an interview with New Telegraph over the weekend.
President Bola Tinubu during his recent nationwide address said the adoption of CNG would save Nigeria over N2 trillion monthly, being used to import fuel and diesel.
Tinubu said: “We immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down.
This will save over N2 trillion a month, being used to import PMS (fuel) and AGO (diesel) and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80 per cent of the imported PMS (fuel) and AGO (diesel).”
But Ukadike also said that since the inauguration of the CNG initiative and rollout of CNG-powered buses and tricycles beginning from Ilorin, the Kwara State capital in May, 2024, many marketers had not received the kits.
He said the implementation of the PNGI has not been as smooth and swift as expected. He concurred that the adoption of CNG would save a humongous amount of money for the government and the users.
He also said that it would reduce the cost of transportation and accelerate business growth and economic development. He added that it would also reduce cost of goods and services and thereby improve the living standard and quality of lives of residents in Nigeria.
Ukadike said: “It is not in doubt that the CNG will reduce the high level of pressure on the forex as more naira is chasing a few dollars. It is also not in doubt that CNG will save the economy, and environment because CNG is not as harmful as fuel.
The issue of importing petroleum products will also be minimized. But we are still waiting for the government to fully implement it. “Nigerians we are good at policy making.
We are also good in preempting the outcomes of the policies and programmes but we are not good in institutionalising and sustaining it. The issue of CNG gains cannot be over-flogged.
“But the problem we are facing now is the issue of implementation. CNG has been introduced into the Nigerian market and Mr. President has also inaugurated it. We were told that with the master plan they have, there will be conversion centres whereby vehicles will be converted from petrol to CNG.
They are skeletal. But the kits that will help us as promised by FG have not been released. People are still scrambling to get the CNG free kits for conversion.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, had, in April, said that FG was ready to launch about 2,700 CNG-powered buses and tricycles before May 29, the first year anniversary of Tinubu’s administration.
In a statement titled: ‘Presidential CNG initiative set for rollout,’ he added that FG was set to deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of 2024.
He said: “From the end of May, Nigeria will take some baby steps to join such nations that already have large fleets of CNG vehicles.
“All is now ready for delivery of the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch of the CNG initiative ahead of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration on May 29.
“About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024…working towards delivering 200 units before the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration.”
He added that in all, over 600 buses were targeted for production in the first phase which should be accomplished in 2024. In May, as part of activities to mark Tinubu’s one year in office, FG rolled out the CNG-powered buses and tricycles beginning from Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Onanuga later explained the Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), launched a refuelling and conversion centre and unveiled CNG buses and tricycles in Ilorin.
He added that the CNG vehicle assemblers has begun the rollout, beginning from Ilorin. FG in early July 2024, commenced the free conversion of petrol and diesel-powered commercial vehicles to CNG in Abuja and Lagos.
Officials of the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, as well as those from the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, monitored the commencement of the exercise at Abuja while transporters brought in their vehicles to be converted.
FG after signing agreements with various companies involved in the conversion of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to operate on CNG, later assured that the conversion of petrol and diesel-powered commercial vehicles to run on CNG was going to be free of charge.
The Programme Director/ Chief Executive, Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, also said after the government agency signed agreements with various companies in Abuja that commercial transporters under their different unions, including the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and the and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, among others, would benefit from the free conversion programme.
But Ukadike said regardless of the above, appropriate structures for the full actualisation of the project had yet to be put in place.
He said: “We are calling on the government to put in place adequate measures for effective implementation of the project so that the money Mr. President said it would save will be realistic because now those structures are not in place yet.
“We the independent marketers have offered our filling stations as conversion and dispensing centres. We are also asking the CBN to fund some of the filling stations so that we will be able to get the equipment and distribute it to Nigerians.
We are asking for a grant from CBN. “Using IPMAN facilities is a veritable platform to achieve seamless conversion centres.
The templates for easy access to Nigerians will be there but the issue is that most marketers who cannot be able to afford those kits will be able to use the grant from CBN to afford it and continue in business and there will be a return in investment.
“When CNG is fully adopted in Nigeria, it will ease transportation and boost economic activities. That is what is going to do and that is why Nigeria will save that kind of money as proclaimed by Mr. President.”
