Presidential compressed natural gas launches May 29

About 11 months after removing fuel subsidy and promising to provide Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric vehicles as succour, the Federal Government, yesterday, announced an imminent roll-out.

President Bola Tinubu had, in May last year, removed fuel subsidy, a development, which sparked inflation and soaring prices of food, as energy costs for homes and businesses rose.

Although the previous administration had launched an autogas policy to make a million car owners convert from the use of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the scheme has remained elusive.

But the President, last October, re-launched the scheme as a Presidential CNG Initiative to deliver cheaper, safer and more climate-friendly energy.

Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement, yesterday, said the Federal Government, as part of its several intervention programmes to reduce the burden of the increased pump price of fuel on the masses, provided N100 billion to purchase 5,500 CNG vehicles, 100 electric buses and over 20,000 conversion kits, alongside spurring the development of refilling stations and electric charging facilities.

After months of planning and background checks, the executing committee, by Michael Oluwagbemi, is to deliver the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch to mark the current administration’s assumption of office on May 29.