The Nigerian government has assured Nigerians that the days of purchasing Petroleum Motor Spirit(PMS), also known as fuel, at prices ranging from N750 to N1000 per litre are over. According to Michael Oluwagbemi, the Project Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative, the government plans to introduce 30,000 vehicles fueled by Compressed Natural Gas within 90 days.
He said this at the Park to Park CNG Mobilisation program held at Ojota Park in Lagos on Saturday.
The cost of distributing 30,000 CNG conversion kits nationwide within the specified period is estimated to be N36 billion. The cost of kits and conversion is valued at N1.2 million per vehicle, amounting to N36 billion in the next three months.
The fundamental objective of the Compressed Natural Gas initiative is to make CNG an alternative to fuel transportation.
“Today, we are here with conversion kits. We have bought over 30,000 of these kits, mainly for distribution in the next 90 days.
“The President has told us this is not just to end with 30,000 kits. The target is one million kits. We want to make sure all of you can benefit from this government initiative,” he stated.
“The era of buying N750, N800, or N1,000/litre fuel is over. We are not doing that again. We will start using the gas under our feet so that we can buy it at N230/kg,” he stated.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu has issued a directive to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to procure CNG-powered vehicles. This is a clear sign of the government’s determination to implement the CNG initiative and ease the impact of fuel subsidy removal.