The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNGi) has revealed that Nigeria had flared about $12.5 billion worth of gas in the last five years.

The Programme Director and Chief Executive Officer of the initiative, Engineer Michael Oluwagbemi noted that it was part of the reasons President Bola Tinubu introduced CNG as a way of turning waste to wealth and rescue the economy.

This came as the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji who commended President Tinubu over CNG initiative said the state has joined the federal government to embraced the initiative, particularly in the vehicle mobility sector.

Oluwagbemi noted that Nigeria was the second largest gas-flaring nation in the world, saying the president’s decision to stop further payment of fuel subsidy was inevitable as Nigeria expended $10 billion annually in the last 20 years buying petrol and diesel to sustain economy with non-available money.

Speaking in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital during the Conversion Incentives Programme Launch, Handover of 15 CNG enabled 16- seaters bus to the state and official signing of 7 Conversion Centres at the weekend, Oluwagbemi said it was important that Nigerians begin to use the God-given resources to drive the economy.

The P-CNGi boss said, “The new innovation and implementation of the programme was designed to generate wealth from the waste that we are doing as a country for many decades. As a country, we are blessed with so much gas yet, we are flaring it.

“On July 31, Mr President addressed the nation, where he indicated that there was the need to move Nigeria to the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) a natural gas that is cheaper, safer, more reliable and cleaner for the environment, so that the economic could be back on the path of sustainability. Natural gas is abundant for transportation. It is N230 and N380 per LCN compared to petrol at almost N900 and above per litre”.

According to him, one of the mandates of PCNGi is also to enable investment, noting that government alone cannot do it all while he noted the role of the initiative to also deliver regulation for safer growth.
“Energy transition in Nigeria will require nothing less the $3.5 to 4 billion and larger part of it will come from the private sector.

“It is to facilitate investment into the CNG sector. It is worthy of note that over $175 million has been invested into the sector, creating thousands of jobs for teeming youths and technicians”.

Oluwagbemi added that the presidential mandates on CNG Initiative was to incentivise the adoption of CNG mass transit and transportation sector which give a million of commercial drivers opportunity of converting their vehicles for free.

“We have been able to raise the number of conversation centres in Nigeria from 7 to over 125 today, acquire over 34 thousand conversation kits and another 70,000 on their way to contribute towards this whole of a million conversation by year 2027 and acquired 5,000 enabled tricycles to create well over 2,000 jobs, not just for operators but also for those assembling and maintaining them.

“The CNG-powered buses being delivered will immediately reduce in transportation fares for the teeming citizens of this state.

“The impacts is obvious in the states that have keyed into this project being able to pass on up to 40 percent reduction in transportation fare to the citizens,” he said.

Governor Oyebanji who was represented by Commissioner for Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko said, “The state’s CNG efforts began with the partnership with the IPP Limited to use CNG to power the state’s 3MW Independent Power facility being operated since November 2023.

“We are happy that several existing oil and gas outlets in the state have already signalled their interest to in also becoming refueling centres.

“But most particularly, we urge all and sundry, particularly our commercial operators including tricycles to consider converting their vehicles for CNG use or adopting them all together.

“The conversion and refuelling centres also offer opportunities for employment for our youths in the technical and commercial arena and we urged the youths to embrace them to fulfill our mantra of shared prosperity.

“We will ensure that as many government vehicles as possible get converted so as to contribute our quota in the establishment of a market for CNG and attracting investment infrastructure in Ekiti”.

The NURTW chairman in the state, Amb. Joseph Falope and his RTEAN counterpart, comrade Sunday Adeola thanked President Tinubu for the initiative and promised to support the state government in ensuring the success of the programme.