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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Federal Government has said it will be offering a 100 percent discount on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion to all unionised commercial drivers across the country, starting with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ride-share companies also known as e-hailing taxis like Bolt and Uber will also benefit from a 50% discount on conversion kits with free installation.
Michael Oluwagbemi, Program Director/CEO of the Presidential CNG Initiative disclosed this at the Official Signing Ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with five workshop owners to drive the initiative, in Abuja on Thursday.
The partners include; NIPCO Gas PLC, Portland Gas Limited and FIX IT 45.
Others are: National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC) and ABG Oil & Ava’s Limited
Oluwagbemi, said the initiative, championed by President Bola Tinubu and supported by the Conversion Incentive Program, aims to reduce transportation costs significantly by lifting the financial burden off commercial drivers.
He noted that fueling vehicles with CNG could cut costs by 40% to 70% compared to traditional fuels like diesel and petrol, adding that this reduction is expected to alleviate transport-related inflation and lower production costs for industries across the nation.
According to him, “The Conversion Incentive Program is tackling the barrier to Nigerian commercial transport entities operators to convert from PMS 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 unionized, I talk about the members of RETEAN, NATO, NURTW, through their unions, they can benefit from almost 100% discount. That is, they will get the kit 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 have begun to identify.
“We have 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 are activating more of them at a time. Now that one.
“The second is rideshare operators. So if you are a vehicle that is operating under Uber, Bolt, LagRide, among the many different operators that we have in Nigeria today, you will be able to benefit also from this program with your companies. Today we have Bolt here with us to sign in, but we hope very soon to add the others. LagRide has already signed up. We are going to send their agreement next week.
“You will be able to benefit from a 50% write-off on the equipment, and then you get installation for free. So that means the government will pay these conversion workshops to install the equipment you will get at 50% off. And because of the arrangement we have with these companies, you will also be able to get to pay little by little.
“So you are not paying any money up front on day one. This is very important because we know the vast majority of Nigerians, many of us in this room depend on these ride shares aside from depending on the public mode of transportation. Now you will be able to benefit from the low cost of transportation that will be occasioned by the implementation of this program.
“We have about 20,000 plus kits that are immediately going to be available in the next three months through these programs. And we will be distributing them across the immediate states that have some CNG capacity or the other. As you know, as we have already publicised during our stakeholder engagement, those states today in Nigeria are about 23, but maybe even up to 25, because we are also extending CNG capacity to Kano and Niger states.
“So as a result of that, this will ensure that these states and the citizens within these states and the union operators, as well as the ride share operators within these states can be one of the participants of these 20,000 potential kits that will be made available under this program. I think that is a good thing for Nigeria. It’s good news for all Nigerians. And it’s just the beginning.”
