President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced a visionary initiative aimed at introducing one million Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered vehicles into the Nigerian market by the year 2027.
This bold plan was unveiled by Toyin Subaru, the Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs, during a recent gathering of stakeholders at the Bank of Industry headquarters in Abuja.
One of the key highlights of this ambitious undertaking is the deployment of 11,500 CNG-powered buses across the nation, which is expected to happen in the near future.
This strategic move is intended to tackle the pressing challenges in the transportation sector, which have been further exacerbated by the recent removal of subsidies. In doing so, it promises to provide a practical and sustainable solution for the public.
The Federal Government has affirmed its commitment to ensuring the success of this initiative. As part of their assurance, they are working to significantly reduce the price of CNG to N230 per kilogram, thus making it a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternative for the citizens.
Subaru emphasized that integrating CNG-powered mass transit buses will enable Nigerians to save up to two-thirds of their transportation costs.
“Now, with this CNG plan, we don’t have to import what we need to operate our vehicles.
“It is called CNG, and we have the gas here in Nigeria. So, the idea is to take the gas and distribute it across Nigeria via different truck stations.
“Most gas is not CNG enabled yet, and what we are doing is to help them convert their cars so you can use petrol and CNG at the same time.
“We are going to develop an app that will enable you to locate where a CNG station is located. We should be able to buy gas for our cars at N230 per KG as against the cost of petrol, which is N680 per litre. This should help every Nigerian save about two-thirds of their transport cost,” he said.
