Taiwo Shittu, the Chief Executive Officer of Lanre Shittu Motors Ltd, has stated that by June 2024, his company will be deploying a large number of the LSM branded CNG buses at the airports across the country and for other mass transportation needs.

He said LSM mulled the idea of CNG vehicles and saw it as the future of the local automotive industry many years ago because of the abundance of excess natural gas in the economy as well as the economic benefits of using CNG buses by both the operators and the commuters.

Shittu assured that there are plans to start the assembling of the LSM branded CNG buses in Lagos using the best technology like in other parts of the world. Apart from assembling CNG vehicles from start to finish inside the LSM plant, the company boasts of enough kits capable of converting petroI-powered vehicles to CNG, he said.

He allayed the fears of prospective customers of lack of quality aftersales maintenance of any stock order rolled out from the assembly plant.

He commended President Bola Tinubu for the ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s automotive sector and mass transportation initiatives in the country through the CNG buses project.

Shittu expressed delight over a number of measures by the current government towards rejuvenating the various auto assembly plants in the country with specific attention to assembly of CNG buses to boost public transportation and lessen the challenges faced by commuters.

Following the presidential directives that CNG buses must be a priority and preferred mode of transport by the various ministries, departments and agencies, the government has shown its determination to encourage the local auto assembly plants.

For over 40 years, according to Shittu, LSM through the visionary founder and chairman, Late Alhaji Lanre Shittu has carved an enviable niche within the automotive industry through its quality products and services. Taiwo Shittu says, introducing the LSM branded buses is one of the many ways of immortalising him.

“We have taken proactive steps in the past years to offer quality training to our technicians at various stages, levels and categories of auto assembly and after sales maintenance services.”

Upon graduation and certification, the technicians are also deployed not only to the various LSM offices nationwide, they are also being sort after by other industry stakeholders within the nation’s automotive value chain.

As at the time of filing this report, the management of Lanre Shittu Motors says that all branches of the company are currently fully equipped with state-of-the-art CNG conversion equipment while orders have been activated and running seamlessly.

Meanwhile, the first set of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles will be inaugurated during the present administration’s first anniversary on May 29, 2024.

The federal government allocated N100 billion from the N500 billion palliative budget to purchase 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses, over 20,000 CNG conversion kits and it also supports the expansion of CNG refilling and electric charging stations.