Dangote Group is set to convert an additional 6,000 diesel-powered trucks to start running on Compressed Natural Gas.
This will add to the existing 4,000 trucks initially converted to CNG by the Dangote Group.
The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative Programme Coordinator, Michael Oluwagbemi, disclosed this in a recent video on the PCNGI’s X handle.
According to him, corporate companies like Dangote and BUA have keyed into the CNG initiative, converting their trucks from diesel to gas in order to save costs.
“Dangote just signed up to have more than 6,000 of their trucks converted in addition to the existing 4,000. BUA is doing the same thing.
“So, we have all of these conversions ongoing. I’m very confident that we’ll be on track to have over 150,000 to 250,000 conversions done at the end of this year, at the current pace,” he stated.
Oluwagbemi expressed pleasure with how Nigerians adopted the CNG initiative.
“I’m very pleased by the response of Nigerians. They’re more receptive. From the get-go, I always said that the failure or the success of this programme would depend on Nigerians. I think, by and large, Nigerians are receptive to this message. They’re receptive to Mr President’s message.
“CNG is a patriotic fuel. So, I can see the natural receptiveness of Nigerians to this programme, it’s great, and I’m happy about it,” he added.
The PCNGI boss disclosed that the successes recorded so far were a result of the collaborations with other agencies.
“We can only achieve all that we’re doing here today as a facilitating organisation. At the end of the day, we are an intervention-facilitating organisation at PCNGI.
“We have government agencies that have different roles to play across the value chain. That’s, of course, one of them is the Nigerian Automotive Development Council. They’re the ones that actually regulate the conversion workshops and make sure that they are keeping to the safety standards.
“We work with them very closely. We help them launch the conversion workshop regulatory framework, which they’ve already launched and is already operational. We work very closely with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria to ensure that kits and cylinders coming into the country meet all the minimum standards.
“We’ve gone on inspections globally as well as domestically with manufacturing plants to ensure that they align with SON standards. And SON has worked very closely with us on the safety issue. The Nigerian Mainstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has been working with us to ensure that we are ready when it comes to add-ons and establishment of data stations and motor stations and licensing them, removing the red tape and making sure we have an accelerated form of actually getting these licenses so that these investments can come in,” he noted.
He maintained that the agency is also working with the Ministries of Transportation and Technology, in terms of training and capacity building, saying more than 5,000 technicians have been trained since last year because of the collaboration.
“As I said, we are an interventionist, facilitating organisation, a presidential initiative. The collaboration with MDGIF under the NMDPRA helped us to ensure that about six companies that are involved in the CNG sector were funded under their programme last year. And these six companies are rolling out daughter (refilling) stations, they are rolling out mother stations.
“One was recently ground broken in Akwa Ibom State by the Minister of State for Gas and we are collaborating with his office as well. We are collaborating with the Minister of Transport. We are collaborating with the Minister of Finance. We are collaborating even with the Minister of Information.
“At the end of the day, I think that this kind of programme, which seeks to actually revolutionise the sector, cannot be done in silos. You must be able to only achieve your goal when you work with other principal regulatory agencies, as well as government agencies, as the case may be, and ministries. These ministries and ministers are important to us, and we continue to work with them closely to ensure we achieve our goals,” he added.
