The Nigerian government has announced the rollout of the Presidential CNG Initiative, a program designed to deliver compressed natural gas, especially for mass transit.
President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
Onanuga said the CNG initiative is set to rollout on May 29, noting that the initial phase focuses on deploying 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles) and 100 electric buses while over 600 CNG buses and 2,500 tricycles are targeted for production this year.
“The Federal Government as part of the many intervention programmes to reduce the burden of increase in pump price on the masses, provided N100 billion (part of the N500 billion palliative budget) to purchase 5500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 Electric buses and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, alongside spurring the development of CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations,” Onanuga stated.
“Already, the committee, being led by Michael Oluwagbemi, an oil and gas expert, has delivered some major foundational reforms to enable the new CNG and Electric Vehicles future the President promised. 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.”
He added that 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.
The presidential spokesman noted that the use of more expensive diesel and PMS will gradually be phased out, when many vehicles, including trucks, run on natural gas, which our nation has in abundance in at least 30 out of the 36 states of the federation.
Four plants owned by JET, Mikano, Mojo, and Brilliant EV located in various parts of the country are involved in the assembly of the Semi Knocked Down (SKD) components of the CNG buses. 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, according to Onanuga.
He stated, “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 current paucity.”
Onanuga added that over 600 buses are targeted for production in the first phase, which will be accomplished this year.
He noted that a new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will assemble thousands of tricycles, stating that 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. About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024.
According to him, thousands of conversion kits for petrol-powered buses and taxis that want to migrate to CNG are also ready with CNG cylinders.
He added that the Federal Government intends to provide them at subsidised rates, especially to commercial vehicle drivers, to bring down the cost of public transportation.
