The Presidency announced on Monday that the Automobile Compressed Natural Gas (AutoCNG) initiative has attracted over $491 million in investments over the past year.
The Programme Director/CEO of the Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, disclosed this during a “Meet the Press” briefing held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Oluwagbemi said the initiative has created over 9,000 direct and 75,000 indirect jobs.
According to him, “Nigeria’s conversion capacity of vehicles from pure petrol and diesel to Bifuel vehicles was raised by almost 3,000 percent with more than 200 new conversion centers established, from just mere seven that existed in Nigeria when the program started, by the private sector – while directly employing over 3,000 new technicians occasioned by the launch of the Conversion Incentive Program.”
Oluwagbemi added that some of the recent negative occurrences involving CNG vehicles, especially in Benin, Edo State, were as a result of sabotage.
He said, “We recognise the initial safety skepticism of the public and we have responded to it by collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Petroleum (Gas) to develop an end to end monitoring of not just CNG but all gas vehicles through a collaborative initiative of the four principal regulators in the sector: SON, NADDC, NMDPRA and FRSC.
“Together we are launching the Nigeria Gas Vehicle Monitoring System (NGVMS) that will ensure only properly converted or inspected (in case of OEM vehicles) are refuelled at gas stations and operate on our roads enforced by NMDPRA and FRSC, respectively.
“At this point, let me be clear that the sole safety incident that occurred in Benin last year was a result of economic saboteurs engaged in illegal fabrication of CNG cylinders and were arrested by the police.
“With NGVMS in place, that incident will be avoided, as only properly labelled and accredited vehicles with certified tanks will be refuelled. The necessary steps to launch NGVMS are ongoing, and we expect it to be in place by year-end.
“We won’t relent in ensuring the safety of lives and investments of participants in the sector; this was why we prioritized regulatory standards issuance from the get-go in March 2024 and continue to work with these agencies, especially SON & NADDC.
“We enjoin all participants to ensure full compliance with regulatory requirements on safety and security.”
He said the PCNGI has recorded a number of successes since the “official roll out of the program after critical plans and strategies were put in place, including rolling out the necessary industry standards and incentives approved by Mr. President and engaging the public and private sector.
“These achievements are all around us; we promised and we delivered.
“No doubt, after an intensive stakeholder engagement and public awareness campaign from May to November 2024, the PCNGI most important achievement was to convince the private sector to invest critical funds alongside the government’s investments upon stimulation of demand by commercial vehicle operators and private vehicle users alike. We have attracted over $491 million of investments in the past year to AutoNG and we are very proud of it. This has created over 9,000 direct and 75,000 indirect jobs.
“To this end, Nigeria’s conversion capacity of vehicles from pure petrol and diesel to Bifuel vehicles was raised by almost 3.000 percent with more than 200 new conversion centers established, from just mere seven that existed in Nigeria when the program started, by the private sector – while directly employing over 3,000 new technicians occasioned by the launch of the Conversion Incentive Program.
Recall that the Conversion Incentive Program (CIP) as announced by the President in August 2024 at the back of the nationwide cost of living protests, officials says, is to enable one million free or subsidized conversions of certain class of vehicles especially public commercial transports, rideshares and MDA vehicles to be done by the PCNGI.
“About 22,000 conversion kits were initially procured and started being delivered in October 2024 to the program by the Ministry of Finance. Already, we are on course for 10,000 conversions by the end of this quarter under this program having started in December, 2024.
“More recently, that program has been expanded by the PCNGI to enable deep discounts for public servants and finance the balance of costs for converting their vehicles working with another major initiative of Mr. President i.e. the Credit Corp. We will soon launch that initiative with the public sector unions.
“If you also recall, to demonstrate the efficacy of CNG and EV platforms, CNG buses and tricycles as well EV buses were procured on our behalf by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He said a total of 655 buses were procured.
“421 CNG buses and 36 EV buses have been delivered so far, the program has deployed 405 buses either as part of the settlement of terms with the NLC and TUC as part of the wage negotiations, or to the transport unions being run commercially in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Transportation or through the partnership with state transport companies that was launched last year.
“The Renewed Hope Mass Transit scheme, launched during the Yuletide period, providing free or discounted rides during that time, has now continued commercially and will soon be launched for tricycles as soon as we sort out the last mile gas infrastructure scheme.”
