The Federal Government is planning a huge reduction in reliance on petrol with about $175 million worth of investments in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles.
At least 700 CNG-powered buses are expected while thousands of conversion kits and centres are underway.
Yesterday, the first batch of 64 buses were given to Labour centres, students and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, who inaugurated the vehicles at Aso Villa yesterday, described them as a major step in curbing inflation, now on a downward trend.
Project Director of the Presidential Initiative on CNG, Mr. Michael Oluwagbemi, said: “Since our founding exactly one year ago when Mr. President announced the Presidential CNG initiative, we’ve been able to move the nation forward.
“Nigeria had seven conversion centres this time last year. Today, we can boast of over 125.
“We’ve tracked over $175 million investments in the sector coming into mother stations. An additional 12 mother stations have been commissioned between last year and today.
“We’ve seen additional refuelling stations being invested in; about 75 of them are currently under construction, and the commissioning of about 12 already this year. We expect another 25 before the end of the year.
“Jobs are being created. Just last year, we could boast of just less than 100 conversion technicians in Nigeria.
“I visited a workshop in Lokogoma where the gentleman spoke about training about 40 new technicians every week. NITT, NADDC, and all of these institutions are training technicians every day.
“Beyond this, over 34,000 conversion kits have already been ordered, and we have more than half of that in our hands and are already being distributed. Conversion is taking place across Nigeria.
“Yesterday (Saturday), 53 conversion centres in eight states were launched; we hope by next week, an additional two states will join the train, and slowly but surely, all 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT will have conversion centres.”
