At the official commissioning of the CNG conversion centre in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi stated Nigeria’s natural gas is in abundance, which can used both for domestic and industrial purposes. “We hope that the process of the CNG conversion program with private sector companies will attract an investment of well over $2 billion and create over 250, 000 jobs.
He also stated that the committee aims to have about 10, 000 CNG vehicle conversion workshops in Lagos very soon. As regards the cost of conversion, Oluwagbemi explained that it could cost between N300,000 to about N600,000, depending on the exchange rate, while assuring that Nigeria would begin to assemble and manufacture CNG conversion kits.
“It costs between N300,000 to about N600,000 to convert to CNG-enabled vehicles. The cost of converting vehicles to CNG depends on the type of car and components such as those that come with four valves, and six or eight valves’ engines. It also depends on the storage capacity of the vehicle that you want to convert as this also determines the range of distance the vehicle can cover.
“For now, we are bringing conversion kits into the country. But, under this initiative that serves as palliative for Nigerians, the government is giving out discounts on the immediate cost of conversion for Nigerians and will also allow slow or part payment over time as the committee continues to review the CNG initiative with more programs on discounts and others.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer, of Femadec Limited, Fola Akinola said the partnership with P-CNGi has been long expected such that the firm can also deploy resources to make sure that Nigerians make good use of their natural gas. “We started the project with our funds. I hope with this take-off, there will be financing structures from banks through the federal government in addition to the P-CNGi intervention”.