The prospect of the adoption of Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) in Nigeria as an alternative and cheaper transportation fuel is getting brighter.
Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, Director General, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) gave this indication yesterday in Abuja at the stakeholders meeting on the accreditation and certification of Autogas conversion centres in Nigeria.
The Director General who was represented by the Director, Research Design and Development,Dr Fidelis Achiv recalled “last year, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNG-i) as a successor to the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP). Among the objectives of the initiative is the utilisation of CNG to be an alternative transportation fuel to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal. This initiative is techno-economically beneficial because Nigeria is naturally blessed with abundance of natural gas deposit and is ranked first (1st) in Africa as the country with over 200 trillion cubic feet natural gas reserves”
” Therefore, Nigeria must leverage on these natural gas resources, and transform it to an energy that will drive the automotive wheels of Nigeria”
Osanipin recounted that “over the last few years, the Council organised a sensitization and awareness campaign on the safety and benefits of using AutoGas (CNG) as an alternative fuel to petrol and diesel. The campaign which recorded success has enlightened and encouraged Nigerians to patronize CNG conversion centres, which subsequently pave way for many petrol vehicles to be converted to CNG. Nowadays, after the removal of fuel subsidy, government agencies, businesses, logistics companies and private vehicle owners have converted their vehicles to CNG”
The Director General noted that “however, majority of the vehicles being converted are usually private vehicles used for commercial purposes like Uber, Bolt etc. this is due to the profitability and affordability of CNG.
According to Autogas Africa, there are over 120 CNG conversion centres with 466 skilled technicians operating across the country, these workshops has a capacity to convert a minimum of 2 (two) petrol vehicles to CNG per day”.
He said “this indicates that CNG conversion is increasingly gaining acceptance and the market is expanding in the country”.
Osanipin however revealed that”these CNG conversion centres are unregulated which raises safety concerns on the standards and code of practice used in the conversion. The market expansion, safety concerns and unregulated conversion centres have necessitated the Council to roll out programmes to standardise CNG conversion centres and upgrade skills development through training of auto technicians on conversion, repair and maintenance of CNG vehicles”.
The NADDC boss hopes that the workshop will “enlighten stakeholders on the developed Council’s guidelines and requirements for the accreditation and certification of all workshops that are interested or undertaking CNG conversion”.
“The accreditation and certification will ensure that workshops operate in compliance to workplace best practice and standards. The guidelines and expression of interest form will be available online through the Council’s website, therefore, it is required that all CNG workshops should apply for the accreditation and certification”,Osanipin assured.
“Nigeria must embrace CNG vehicles as a means of cheaper transportation, this will alleviate the effect of fuel subsidy removal, mitigate environmental concerns and a means of market expansion for the Nigerian economy. It also creates more job opportunities and wealth creation which is in line with the Mr. President’s Renewed Hope agenda. The regulation of CNG conversion workshops will certainly provide safe CNG vehicles on the road”the Director General asserted.
PCNGI, NMDPRA ,SON,FRSC,FMF FMT were present at the engagement meeting.Representatives of the key players in the automotive industry including ANAMMCO were also present including several virtual participants.