FG Demands More Private Investments in CNG Conversion, Filling Stations

*Commences conversion of 150 vehicles to CNG in Kaduna

Peter Uzoho and John Shiklam in Kaduna

The federal government has called on the Nigerian private sector to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNGI) and invest in setting up more facilities for conversion of petrol-run vehicles to CNG-powered.
The government also called for increased private investments into building and establishing additional outlets that offer CNG refilling services in order to deepen its adoption and penetration in the country.
Special Project Advisor, P-CNGI, Mr. Olayinka Rufai, made the call in Lagos when his team visited Mezovest workshop, in Ajah, one of the accredited CNG conversion centers.

In another related development, the federal government has also delivered 150 Compress Natural Gas (CNG) kits and cylinders for the conversion of 150 commercial vehicles in Kaduna State.
The kits were delivered at the Rolling Energy, one of the conversion centres in Kakau, along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway by Thomas Ayu, Coordinator of Logistics and Supply Chain, Presidential Initiative CNG.
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Ayu said the programme aimed at supporting transporters to convert their vehicles to a more efficient, economical, and safe energy source.
Speaking in Lagos, the Special Project Advisor, P-CNGI, Mr. Olayinka Rufai said currently, only about 20 CNG conversion centers and few filling stations exist in Nigeria to serve the

emerging CNG auto market in the country, a situation he noted, informed the need for increased investment from private organisations.
He said the government was not intending to establish CNG filling stations and conversion centers to avoid crowding out investors, pointing out that the government only plays the role of business enabler through the introduction of policies and programmes such as the P-CNG initiative.
He added that the government was currently running the kits conversion incentive programme where about 10,000 commercial vehicles will be converted free of charge on a first-come-first serve basis within the next 18 months, while targeting to ramp it up to one million converted vehicles by 2027.
Rufai stated: “We are encouraging private investment to see that there is an opportunity here. And trust me, we receive letters of intent and requests for information from all kinds of private investors who are willing and able and ready to set up filling stations all over the nation, and you will see a lot of those as well

“Remember that government is not in the business of business. So, we are encouraging private investors to do what they can to establish CNG refilling stations nationwide and I expect that that is something that is happening on a daily basis. We do not believe that this is something that is going away.
“So, I call on any organisations, groups or individuals to get on board, support this initiative of the federal government of Nigeria, support what we are trying to do here. It’s a win-win for everybody.
“So, yes, it is something that we are doing. This is part of the encouragement. If you wait to have enough filling stations before you start converting, it doesn’t make sense.”

He said the government was doing everything necessary to increase CNG filling stations as well as increasing the number of people that require filling to further encourage people to adopt the alternative cheaper energy product.
According to him, inspection of vehicles for free conversion has been going on well in many centres across the country and that most of the vehicles inspected were eligible for conversion to CNG.
“So, we expect a high turnout.  As words continue to go out, we expect more and more people coming. The centre here – Mezovest seems adequate to be able to have a high capacity of vehicles at the same time”, he added.

 He encouraged Nigerians to embrace the CNG initiative because of economic benefits, explaining that using CNG will significantly reduce the cost of transportation and food items as it is far cheaper, cleaner and safer than petrol.
Rufai however mentioned that more schemes were in the pipeline which will also contribute in crashing the initial cost borne by private individuals or organizations to convert their petrol vehicles to CNG.
On his part, Thomas Ayu, Coordinator of Logistics and Supply Chain, Presidential Initiative CNG, said the initiative is a collaboration between the federal government and private companies that is handling the vehicle conversion.
Ayu allayed fears being expressed by some motorists about the safety of carrying a gas in a vehicle, assuring that, it is safe, more efficient and cheaper than petrol.

 “CNG is a clean energy. It’s clean, cheaper, more effective in consumption compared to fuel.
“So, for people who are having fear of gas explosions as a result of carrying gas in their vehicles around, I can assure them that there is nothing to worry about, people should come out en masse to convert their vehicles,” he said.
According to him, the kits are in different categories – six cylinders and for four cylinders, “in line with what Mr. President wants Nigerians and the transport sector to enjoy as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.

He added that the kits and conversion are free and called on transport unions and transporters to take advantage of the programme to convert their vehicles.
He said: “For Kaduna State in this programme, we have 150 kits and 150 cylinders. We are going to provide more kits and more cylinders in the coming months.
“We are targeting to give more than 10,000 kits this month across the country”.
Ayu added that the focus is strictly on transport vehicles, not private cars. “We have not started converting private vehicles or organisations but people only in the transport sector so that the impact of fuel subsidy removal will not give them that effect”, he said.
Receiving the kits, Mohammed Sadiq, representative of Rolling Energy’s Lead Station and Technical Services, said the centre had already screened the 50 vehicles for conversion.
He added that the centre was ready for the exercise.