President Bola Tinubu said the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative will save over 2 trillion naira spent on importing Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) into the country.
The president said this in a national broadcast to Nigerians in response to protests that have erupted across the country due to the rising cost of living and hardships.
President Tinubu said the government has begun efforts to ease the burden of living costs for Nigerians and called on Nigerians to stop further protests and join the dialogue.
He said the CNG initiative, which was launched last year, will reduce transportation costs by 60 percent, helping to curb inflation in the country.
He also said the government will distribute conversion kits at a very low cost to commercial transport companies that transport people and goods and account for about 80 percent of the country’s PMS consumption. “Dear Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we have come across countries that are solely dependent on oil and neglecting the gas resources that underpin their economy. Also, we have used our hard-earned foreign exchange to finance and subsidize its use.”
“To address this issue, we have immediately launched the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative to strengthen our transportation economy and reduce costs. This will save over 2 trillion naira per month used to import PMS and AGO, allowing resources to be channeled towards further investment in health and education.”
“To this end, we will distribute 1 million kits at very low cost or free to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and currently consume 80% of imported PMS and AGO.”
Following the removal of fuel subsidies on May 29, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in October launched the Presidential CNG Initiative to provide more affordable, safe, and environmentally friendly energy. The initiative is primarily focused on providing compressed natural gas for public transport.
To ease the burden of rising fuel prices, the Federal Government has allocated N100 billion from the N500 billion mitigation budget for the purchase of 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses, and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits. In the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria spent about 2.6 trillion naira on petrol imports, a 46 percent increase compared to the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed.
