The government said it had acquired 30,000 CNG conversion kits for distribution free of charge nationwide within the period. The kits and the conversion costs were valued at the rate of N1.2m per vehicle, making a total of N36bn within the next three months.
The move is to ensure the adoption of CNG as an alternative fuel for transportation.
The Project Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, stated this during the Park to Park CNG Mobilisation programme held at the Ojota Park in Lagos.
Oluwagbemi said President Bola Tinubu is taking steps to ensure transporters use CNG to replace high-priced petrol and diesel, believing this would reduce the cost of transportation and by extension, the rising cost of food items.
The PCNGi boss said the President is interested in distributing one million CNG kits to commercial drivers across Nigeria as palliatives.
Oluwagbemi announced that the government was building more CNG stations where drivers could buy the commodity at below N250/kg.
He added that no fewer than 150 drivers would get vouchers to have their vehicles converted free of charge by any of the 14 workshops selected in Lagos.
The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Transportation, Sola Giwa, expressed optimism that the conversion to CNG would bring down the cost of transportation by 50 per cent.