Nigerian govt commits over 450 mln USD to natural gas initiative

Abuja (The Uttam Hindu): The Nigerian government has committed more than $450 million to the country's compressed natural gas (CNG) value chain since the launch of an ambitious initiative partly to address rising petrol or gasoline costs and promote cleaner energy. This whopping sum of money was invested into creating CNG mother stations, daughter stations, refueling stations, and conversion centers that are springing up across the most populous African country, Tosin Coker, head of commercial for the Presidential CNG Initiative, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the reporters at the 2024 Nigeria Energy Forum in the southwestern state of Lagos. Coker said the initiative has successfully converted more than 10,000 vehicles from petrol to CNG. It aims to push the conversion rate to "more than 1 million vehicles using petrol to CNG" by 2027. In May 2023, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu halted the decades-long subsidy on gasoline, shifting focus to the use of CNG to partly cushion the effects of the country's worst cost-of-living crisis triggered by the subsidy removal. The government launched the CNG initiative in August, aiming to reduce transportation costs by nearly 50 per cent by rolling out gas-powered public buses and switching petrol-powered vehicles to gas.

Coker also said the government had continuously sensitised citizens on the advantages of using CNG to power their vehicles, which, he added, can "guarantee cleaner environment, is cheaper and affordable."