The Director-General/Chief Executive, Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria, Bayero Farah, said the institute’s business plan is aimed at delivering about 500,000 technical experts that could perform smart conversion and an equivalent of two million jobs across the autogas value chain.

This is expected to be achieved in partnership with the private sector in the next three years. Farah said the long-term plan by the institute would provide modern infrastructure for the conversion/training centres across the 36 states of the federation.

According to him, as a major participant and stakeholder in the autogas value chain, the institute will continue to support the stakeholders to develop and deliver the strategy through the provision of technical know-how and expertise.

He stated this at a virtual roundtable on ‘Effective and defective palliative delivery strategies’, organised by the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIOTA).

As part of the NITT vision on palliatives, he said the institute will make vehicle conversion simple for everyone in the society, minimize the effects of fuel subsidy removal to the people; and continue to promote autogas as an alternative transportation fuel, while providing economic opportunities by creating new jobs and grow a low carbon skills-based through innovation.

He said the institute is saddled with the mandate to drive innovations through the development of new technologies to meet the demands of the transport and logistics industry, stating that the NITT is researching and developing alternative fuel solutions for the transport industry.

Professor of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University (LASU), Samuel Odewumi, said everything possible should be done to ensure the security of lives and property on the land, a significant increase in crude production to sure up revenue to strengthen the naira, while the oil thieves must be exposed and punished to stop the larceny going on in the Niger Delta.

While speaking on the sub-topic, ‘Getting it right: Effective and sustainable palliatives’, he advocated payment of hardship allowance, sustainable salary increase for workers, payment of retirees’ pensions and arrears and all debt owed workers.

Odewumi who doubles as the Chairman of Road Sub-Committee, CIOTA, said the N5 billion given to each of the 36 state governors should be used for rolling out gas conversion and dispensing infrastructure; and that government should direct and assist petrol stations to be able to achieve triple dispensation, fuel, gas and electricity.

He urged the government to palliate the roads to make them passable for all and to facilitate fuel distribution by the tankers and trailers, use of trains to move cheaply and securely fuel and solid freight to relieve the roads of excessive weight; and increased refined fuel supply.

On his part, a Professor of Transport Management, the Federal University of Technology Owerri Imo State, Callistus Ibe, said whenever the transport sector sneezes, all other sectors catch cold depending on the severity level.

Consequently, Ibe said the sneezing of the transport sector as a result of fuel subsidy removal has brought about intense hardship on the people leading to an increase in the cost of living and poverty.