The Federal Government, through the Presidential Compressed Gas Initiatives (pi-CNG), has handed over 15 CNG buses and kits to the Ekiti State government, even as it launched seven conversion centres in the state.

Project Director/CEO, Presidential Compressed Gas Initiatives, Engineer Michael Oluwagbemi, who at the weekend in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, handed over the CNG buses at a ceremony in the state capital, noted that the buses, which would now be plying the roads in Ekiti for intra and interstate transportation, would reduce the cost of transportation in the state.

According to Oluwagbemi, the target is to give one million drivers the opportunity to convert to CNG for free by 2027.

He said: “Today we will be handing over some of these kits and we will be signing for seven of these centres that will be doing the conversion in Ekiti State.”

The Presidential CNG CEO added: “We have been able to increase the number of conversion centres in the country from 7 to over 150 today. We have also been able to acquire over 35,000 kits and another 70,000 on their way to contribute to this goal of a million conversions by the year 2027.

“The Presidential CNG initiative is focused on three areas. The first was to initiate its adoption for mass transit. The reason why we are here today is to make sure that Ekiti State commercial vehicles benefit from one of the numerous initiatives of Mr. President.

“We have also acquired 5,000 CNG tricycles, which will create over 20,000 jobs in the value chain. Today we are handing over a few of those CNG buses that will now be plying your roads in Ekiti.”

Oluwagbemi, who said that the government cannot do it alone, added that it was estimated that the transition from “the use of petrol to the use of Compressed Natural Gas that we need in Nigeria will cost between $3.5 to $4 billion. Most of that money will come from the private sector.

“So our second mandate is to facilitate investment into CNG. I am happy to inform you that one year later, we have seen investment of over $175 million creating over a thousand jobs for our teeming unemployed youths.”

In his remarks, the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, urged commercial drivers and tricycle drivers in the state to consider converting their vehicles to CNG or adopting them altogether.

Oyebanji, who was represented by the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Professor Mobolaji Aluko, said that the CNG initiatives will not succeed unless four things occur, saying, “The first is that conversion centres must exist; two, vehicles must be available to be converted; three, there must be refuelling centres; and four, gas must exist.

“This is why we welcome the seven conversion centres that have been unveiled today. I am convinced there will be a quick return on investment when you convert. It will offer employment for our youths. In fact, 25 of our indigenes were trained for one week at a centre in Ado Ekiti.”

The governor assured that many government vehicles would be converted as quickly as possible “so as to contribute our quota for gas worth investing in and worth investing in Ekiti. We have identified such vehicles, including my own. I will undergo conversion in no time.”

He named the new mass transit system as the ‘Ile Iyi mass transit scheme’, warning that past failures associated with the mass transit scheme must not reoccur.