CNG-auto is thriving; investments are expanding — PCNGI boss

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

AS the backdrop of the complaints made by some stakeholders over the implementation of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative as alternative petrol, the Director of the Presidential CNG Initiative (PCNGI), Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi, has explained that the programe is very much on track.

While acknowledging the challenges, he assured that the initiative would overcome them. He said that the current CNG availability challenges were transitional.

He also disclosed that his office is engaging all stakeholders, from regulators to investors to resolve all issues associated with the CNG programme, adding that CNG is the way to go in fueling the nation’s automobiles.

He urged Nigerians to be patient and to allow CNG to take root in the Nigerian transport sector.

His words, “We have to say ‘thank you’ to Nigerians for buying into Mr. President’s vision on the utilization of the CNG. I will let you know that we were established in October 2023 and we did not roll out until May last year. That was the rollout on the awareness side. “In terms of the implementation, we started in October of last year. We are just about seven to eight months into implementation.

“The result is self-testifying. Our first targets were the commercial vehicle operators, in line with Mr. President’s approval to get public transport operators to key into the programme under which they were to benefit from a discounted rate. Some MDAs and even some sectors among professionals, such as, journalists benefited from it because we thought they would be a good platform to evangelise this programme and that has been very successful.

“Now we have succeeded in the awareness programme and we now have another problem. We recognize the fact that with the rate of success of our programme we will face the challenge of technology and infrastructure.

“But I can assure the public that just like the challenges the nation faced when the GSM (telephone) technology was rolled out in 2001, and we overcame, we will overcome the current challenges associated with the CNG.

“All we need is to let the market work. The tendency is to fall back on the government should do everything, but that is not the way to go. If we allow the market to work, the CNG sub-sector will be very successful, just like the GSM technology.

“We should allow the private sector operators to respond. And they are already responding. Next week, we will be commissioning the facility of Shafa and we are going to Greenvile station in Yola. “We are going to launch about 60 stations across the country. Our friends at Femadec are going to establish refill stations across 20 universities. They are adding to the existing infrastructure and these are being done by the private sector which is the way to go.

“I urge members of the public to be patient. Are there issues about gas availability? Yes. Are there issues about companies trying to secure licences for CNG refill stations? Yes. But the good thing is that we are engaging all the regulators concerned and we are resolving such issues. We are solving the problems. We are not allowing them to fester before solving them. We are working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, we are working with the Nigeria Gas Company to ensure NNPC and other companies that have built stations, which are waiting for launching are all adding to existing infrastructure.

“We are handling all issues. If they have a design that does not meet standards, we step in; if they import equipment from overseas and have problems clearing them at the ports, we step in and engage Nigeria Customs Service.

“We are doing our best and want to assure Nigerians that this pain is temporary. Our role is to facilitate this sub-sector. By next month we should be having more than 100 stations. New stations are coming on stream.

“The existing stations may have issues like pressure drops, non-availability of gas and other operational issues. But they are being surmounted. “As you may be aware, the president has set an ambitious target for the NNPCL to increase gas production in Nigeria. That will impact us. We are witnessing increased investments in gas upstream. But it is not only about gas production. Gas can be present upstream but the infrastructure to get it downstream for consumers is critically important.

“We need infrastructure to move gas to where the consumers are and that is one of our operational challenges. We have investment challenges and we are encouraging investors to move into the sub-sector. The opportunities there are enormous and we want our people to tap into it.

“PCNGI was established to facilitate and drive the programme and we are doing exactly that. We are engaging with the GAC (Gas Aggregation Company) which has the responsibility of making sure that gas is well-harnessed and put to productive use in the country”.

On why gas is scarce in the North, he said, “We can’t move gas up North beyond 200 km of Ajaokuta due to technology limitations. Currently, CNG can go as far as Kaduna or Zaria.

“But be rest assured that our goal is to cover the entire nation. Good enough, private investors are massively moving into this sector and in a week or so we will be launching Greenvile facility in Yola. Many more are coming up across the country. CNG is the fuel of the future and we need to sustain the momentum”.

In previous comments the PCNGI boss said over $491 million (approximately N785.6 billion) investments have been attracted to AutoCNG and it has created over 9,000 direct and 75,000 indirect jobs in the past one year.

He said the conversion capacity of vehicles from pure petrol and diesel to Bifuel vehicles had increased from seven when the programme started to more than 200, adding that the Conversion Incentive Programme (CIP) introduced by President Bola Tinubu in August 2024 led to the employment of 3,000 new technicians.

He said the programme was to enable one million free or subsidised conversion of certain classes of vehicles, especially public commercial transports, rideshares and MDA vehicles to be done by the PCNGI. He said about 22,000 conversion kits were initially procured and started being delivered in October 2024 to the programme by the Ministry of Finance.

He added that 10,000 conversion centers would be established by the end of this quarter under this programme having started in December 2024.

In a special communication to Vanguard yesterday, Oluwagbemi explained, “From May 2024, the PCNGI set out to implement its mandate in line with the directive and vision of Mr. President, which were to incentivise the adoption of CNG and EV vehicles to ensure sustainable transportation for all Nigerians; Facilitate investments into the alternative energy sector for transportation and; Coordinate regulation of the emerging sector for rapid growth. “Because the initial desire of the President was greeted with skepticism, the start-up work of the PCNGI was to embark on an intensive awareness campaign which was conducted from May to October 2024; hardly any CNG vehicles were on our roads, and no demand at the few eleven CNG stations nationwide since a 2017 pilot by NNPCL

“Many, even our most ardent adherents were not convinced anyone will want CNG vehicles. Misinformation and fake news on CNG dominated the media space.

“One year out, we are pleased that even the doubting Thomases are singing a new tune. With over 50,000 vehicle count and rising to 100,000 – the queues at CNG stations are naturally going to rise, because of such unprecedented increase from mere 4000 in vehicle count as a result of massive incentive provided by the administration and the breakthrough in awareness due to the economic benefits of the switch. Nigerians love CNG and the program is working.

“Indeed, the private sector as well as public partners that will develop the necessary infrastructure to meet the rising demand of CNG vehicles are taking note.

“Just last week, two new daughter stations in Abuja were commissioned with AY Shafa and Femadec investing in these ventures. Both entities have nine and 21 daughter stations respectively in the works in the next one year.

“For Femadec, the dual benefit of leading the charge of building CNG ecosystem in 20 universities is an icing on the cake.

“This week, Yola is stepping up with Greenville investing in its intensive roll out of LCNG stations in 51 locations across the North and South East as well as hard to reach places. Over 175 stations are being rolled out nationwide by various partners.

“In addition to Greenville and Femadec, the PCNGI is backing partners to roll out 24 sites in the next 6-9 months, with one site already activated in Ilorin. Port Harcourt, Ado Ekiti, Lokoja, Abuja, Aba and Enugu will all go live within the next 60 to 120 days to dispense CNG, to scale the refueling on-lending initiative heralded with the first launch in llorin last year that have already transformed that local economy.

“Aside from these, NNPCL is investing additional eight stations to its current stock of 12 being finished as we speak and another 40 of the 100 in Phase 2 of her roll out plan is being finalized. Bovas is launching two sites in Ibadan any moment from now from its eight station roll out of ultra modern CNG stations and ecosystem. NIPCO’s eight stations in addition to 23 already live across the country will be completed within 6 months.

“Just last week, the Midstream Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund a veritable partner in the process awarded ten new entries equity investments to develop their various gas projects. Three of them were focused on developing CNG stations.

“This was in addition to four of the six of initial N123 billion naira investments made last year by MDGIF being directed at the sub-sector. In one year, the CNG sector has attracted over $500 million in investments and created over 10,000 direct jobs. 255 new conversion centers that didn’t exist last year and S53 daughter stations exist today as a result of some of those investments”.

Urging patience, Oluwagbemi further stated: “Nigeria is making progress with respect to CNG infrastructure but engineering feats take time. It took over seventy years to get addicted to petrol and diesel; it will take more than seven months to be weaned off the addiction.

“We doubt anyone will need to convert a Bi-Fuel vehicle that is already running on both CNG and Petrol back to just run on Petrol since even the mere occurrence of CNG stations on a journey can result in up to ninety percent reduction in costs.

“At the Presidential CNG Initiative, we remain committed to our mandate while working hard across the value chain to deliver the goodies Mr. President has promised to all Nigerians.