TheCable

Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, says his principal is projecting a cost of N250 per litre for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

Speaking on Channels Television’s Business Morning show on Tuesday, Ngelale said the CNG initiative is very important to the president.

The special adviser said the policy, chaired by Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff, will roll out 11,500 new CNG fuel vehicles in the near term, focusing on mass transit systems across all states of the federation.

“The CNG initiative is a very important one,” he said.

“We recognise that at a time when energy costs are going up, when our people are hurting from rising food costs and inflation, dealing with the issue of rising energy costs is fundamental. This is why the president put in place this initiative targeting the transportation modes that affect the bulk of our masses.

“Being able to ensure that we can provide CNG-fueled buses and the like that would crash the cost from PMS-fueled buses at about N620 per litre on average, you’re now looking at about N250 per litre on average for CNG.

“That’s going to have a massive impact on the ability of the everyday Nigerian using mass transit across all our states.

“So that’s going to do that in the immediate time.”

Ngelale said through the initiative, the FG would also be rolling out 55,000 new CNG conversion kits for existing PMS vehicles to be able to further accelerate the process of conversion and transition from PMS to CNG.

Speaking further on the government’s plan to sustain the supply and demand of CNG, the special adviser said 56 new CNG  filling stations will be rolled out across all states of the federation within the next 16 months.

He said “21 new CNG filling stations within the next nine months and then 35 new filling stations CNG stations between April 2024 and April 2025”.

“We’re also going to be rolling out an exemption on customs duties as well as VAT exemptions on all importation of CNG conversion kits to further accelerate and cheapen the process of CNG conversion for families across Nigeria,” Ngelale added.

Last week, Tinubu approved the establishment of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI).

The initiative seeks to ease the impact of the petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians by reducing energy costs.