The federal government has commenced the distribution of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion kits nationwide to fast-track the change of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to the use of CNG.

Micheal Oluwagbemi, programme director of the Presidential CNG Initiative (PCNGi), disclosed this during an inspection tour and distribution of the kits to six CNG conversion centres in Abuja.

The six conversion centres inspected by the team are NIPCO Oil and Gas Station Airport Road, Kia Motors at Utako, Mijo Gas Auto in Jahi, ABG CNG, Kubwa, Bovas Filling station, Wuse Zone 5 and C&L Mart Energy Solutions Ltd at Lokogoma, Abuja.

Mr Oluwagbemi said the CNG initiative by President Bola Tinubu would provide cheaper and cleaner vehicle fueling alternatives for Nigerians.

“The president has assured that we are making one million conversion kits available for free for the commercial sector or at reasonable discounts for private vehicles.

“This is to enable transportation fares to be moderated across the country over the next couple of years,“ he said.

The coordinator said the federal government had officially signed up with over 75 conversion partners in eight states, including Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, Delta, Kogi, FCT, and Kaduna.

“These eight states are where the conversion incentive programmes have kicked off. In the next six to eight weeks, we’ll be having an additional nine states.

The states to be included are Kwara, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Kano, and Niger.

Mr Oluwagbemi said they were working with governors and the private sector to ensure the conversion kits were available to beneficiaries.

“Of course, these kits are not manufactured in Nigeria at the moment. We are also enabling local manufacturers with the capacity to ensure that we get them done locally,”  he said.

For her part, the coordinator of business development and strategy of the initiative, Omolara Obileye, reiterated that while the commercial transporters would have a 100 per cent conversion-free, private cars are expected to pay a fraction of the conversion cost.

“However, the cost depends on the vehicle size because there are different types of vehicles, and there is a need to understand exactly what we need to configure in the system.

“We have over 12 conversion centres in the FCT; we will continue to increase the number and update the public,” she said.

(NAN)