The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that it will convert one million cars to gas at no cost, in its autogas initiative.
This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, during an interview on one of the national televisions, on Monday.
The Minister explained that the target of the government is to ensure that all Nigerians embrace the initiative, as it is a safer, cleaner and cheaper source of energy for vehicles.
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He said, “We are going to give out free conversion to one million cars… if you want to convert your car, go to any conversion centre, they convert it for you, they charge us, we pay.
“NNPC has enabled its stations to dispense gas and a lot of other filling stations have enabled theirs too. All Nigerians need is to drive and their vehicles converted free of charge i.e. if they fall among the first 1 million cars.”
When asked if people were already investing in the initiative to guarantee supply, Sylva replied, “When you create demand, investment will follow, as investors will now know that a lot of Nigerians need gas and they will enable their filling stations.”
He added that FG is expecting that every filling station across the nation will be gas-enabled.
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What it means
The development could mean that vehicle owners that are not counted among the one million cars may have to pay about N250,000 to make their vehicles gas-enabled.
What they are saying
Justice Derefaka, Programme Manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Project, said:
“The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher. On the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle, but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder SUV vehicle.”
