The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) has launched nine additional conversion centers to the 55 existing conversion centers in Oyo and Ogun States.
The launch of the nine CNG conversion centers in Oyo and Ogun States took place on Thursday and Friday respectively.
A statement issued by the PCNGI Communications Director, Taiwo Fashipe, explained that the newly added conversion centers in Oyo and Ogun States, respectively, puts the total number of states with conversion centers at seven.
The Oyo and Ogun launch is coming barely two weeks after the PCNGI launched the Rideshare CNG conversion incentive programme and MYCNG APP.
Speaking at the event in Ibadan, Oyo state, the Chief Executive Officer and Programme Director, Michael Oluwagbemi, said the initiative is designed to mitigate the impact of fuel subsidy removal and promote a safer, cleaner, and more reliable transportation future for Nigeria.
He further stated that the initiative aims to fulfill one of the key objectives of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda while emphasizing the importance of Nigerians fully embracing the initiative.
“The President urged Nigerians not to doubt the initiative but to allow the nation to leverage its resources,” he began.
The PCNGI boss also lamented that the country has been reliant on imported and subsidized petroleum products, thereby placing its destiny, growth, and economy in the hands of foreign nations.
“Nigeria has continued to pay for expensive PMS and diesel, which are not only detrimental to our health but also to our finances. The better alternative is to utilise what we have, which is cleaner, cheaper, safer, and more reliable.”
“This natural gas is abundant across the nation, with 30 out of 36 states in Nigeria having natural gas reserves. We have enough gas reserves to last us for over 100 years, making us one of the largest gas reserve nations in the world and the leading one in Africa.”
“And to convert this gas for use in transportation, fuelling generators, or powering our industries, is far simpler than building a refinery.”
He compared the CNG option to the Dangote refinery, which processes about 650,000 barrels per day, equivalent to about 100 million litres of petrol daily, enough to power approximately 36 million vehicles.
However, he pointed out that converting vehicles to CNG would not require the same scale of infrastructure, making petrol both costly and space-consuming.
“With all these natural blessings, why would Nigerians live beside the ocean and wash their hands with spit? Why would we have these abundant gas resources, which are easier to produce, cheaper for our pockets, cleaner for our environment, and safer, and not make good use of them?
“In the event of a petrol tanker accident, nine out of ten incidents result in an explosion, but with CNG, only one out of ten does. CNG is eight times less explosive than diesel and 18 times less explosive than petrol.”
Speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Oluwagbemi commended the state for being a pioneer in adopting the CNG for transportation.
“What we are doing here now is to flag off the incentive programme that the President announced in his last speech to the nation where he talked about the difficulties of all Nigerians.
“He mentioned that a million vehicles are going to be converted either for free. We are here to fulfill the president’s promise here in the city of Abeokuta.“We are going to be working with the conversion centers partners, we signed up four of them here in Ogun State today.”
