President Bola Tinubu has stated that the Compress Natural Gas (CNG) initiative will save the country over N2 trillion in funds used in importing Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) into the country.
The President stated this in a national broadcast message to Nigerians in reaction to protests that have erupted across the country over the rising cost of living and hardship.
President Tinubu called on Nigerians to stop further protests and engage in dialogue stating that the administration has embarked on initiatives meant to assuage the cost-of-living burden on Nigerians.
He mentioned that the CNG initiative launched last year will reduce the cost of transportation by 60% and will translate towards reducing inflation in the country.
He also noted that the administration will distribute conversion kits at very low cost to commercial transporters who move people and goods and are responsible for about 80% of PMS consumption in the country.
He said, “Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy. We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for and subsidise its use.”
“To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down. This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.”
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO.”
Backstory
Following the removal of the fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Presidential CNG Initiative in October to provide more affordable, safer, and environmentally friendly energy. This initiative focuses on supplying compressed natural gas primarily for mass transit.
- To alleviate the burden of rising fuel prices, the Federal Government allocated N100 billion from the N500 billion palliative budget to purchase 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 around N2.6 trillion in petrol imports– an increase of 46% compared to the figure for the immediate past quarter. This is according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).