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•Visits car assembly plant in Ogun
As the journey to boosting gas utilisation gains momentum, a team from the Presidential initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (P-CNG) yesterday assessed the capacity of major manufacturing partners in the Federal Government’s efforts to boost use of CNG automobiles and electric vehicles.
Speaking during media tour of Mikano car assembly plant, in Ogun state, the Programme Director/Chief Executive, Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, said Mikano is one of the manufacturing partners of the CNG-powered automobiles who have shown commitment to supporting government move to migrate to CNG automobiles.
He said: “At the Mikano factory here, we have seen not just capacity, but the utilisation of gas, which the president has been talking about. For example, this factory is running on gas 24/7, and that shows that you can not just use the gas to power your transportation sector, but you can even use it to power your economy”.
He said although many Nigerians are still doubtful of the functionality or otherwise of the CNG, it works efficiently and remains cost-effective.
Oluwagbemi, said other manufacturers are also helping to ensure that the objectives of the project are realised. “In Victoria Island, in Lekki, there’s another manufacturer we’re working with. On Lagos-Badagry Expressway, on May 30, we’re going to be there to inspect another manufacturer, assembling the CNG tricycles. Much later in next month, we’re going to be seeing the Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing for trailer trucks being done,” he said.
He said about 300 staff are employed in that section of this manufacturing plant. “So, it tells you the President is on the right track. We are on the right track as a nation. All we need as a nation, if you ask me, is the confidence. And the purpose of this trip is for us to understand that this thing is already happening in Nigeria,” he stated.
Also speaking, Mikano International Chairman, Mofid Karameh, said the company is on the right tract by supporting government’s plan to ensure more people embrace CNG and electric vehicles.
He said that since the removal of fuel subsidy, the use of gas has increased and that has helped to save foreign exchange for the country.
He said that Mikano has continued to expand its operations to other parts of the country to improve access to more CNG buses and support the government’s initiative.
Karameh said: “I believe that in the next six months, at least 30 per cent of our vehicles should be CNG, with the service of CNG. If we look at other countries, Egypt has turned into CNG for more than four years and they have more than 150,000 vehicles. Pakistan is in CNG. Italy has been in CNG for more than 30 years. So many countries are moving in CNG, we have an environmentally friendly vehicle and we have a cheaper product to move,” he said.
He added: “I believe that we are on the right track, we are going in the right direction and this country is ready to move to CNG vehicles. I believe that in the next six months, 30 per cent of our vehicles will be CNG. Pakistan, and Italy and many other countries are moving into CNG,” he said.
Continuing, Oluwagbemi said that Nigeria, with 220 million people should not rely on importation for all its materials.
He said Nigeria is now making great use of its natural gas resources for industrialisation. “There’s nothing that the Nigerian cannot do. And I will say that again. There’s nothing the Nigerian and the Nigerian brain, coordinated with it, cannot achieve. All of these things, of course, there will be hiccups. There will be issues. But we will go back inwards and solve those issues. And we will move forward as a nation,” he stated.
He said many countries like Taiwan, Japan, China, America among others did not start by making perfect vehicles. “There were mistakes that were made along the way. We must be confident enough to be able to accept that mistakes will happen. There will be errors.
There will be inadequacies. But we will continue. We will emphasize the use of Nigerian products”.
Oluwagbemi added: “This is the decade of gas. And we are going to make it possible by improving and increasing the confidence of our people in what the president is saying. And that’s why we’re here”.
He said that Nigeria is the one with the biggest gas reserve in the world, and has no business whatsoever importing petroleum, liquefied liquid petroleum, to fuel its industrialization, to fuel its factories, to fuel its vehicles, to fuel any kind of development in this country. We should drive on gas.
Continuing, he said: “Nigeria has gas, and we’re going to use our gas to produce electricity, to produce the imputes to our fertilizer plant, to drive a cultural revolution, to drive our vehicles to ensure that Nigerians can produce cheaper. And I think that is the right thing to do. And Mr. President has projected our vision, and our steering committee led by Dr. Zak Adediji has empowered us to go in this direction alongside the six other steering committee members, and we’re on the right path”.
And thankfully, the members of the media, you guys have done a very good job of sensitizing Nigeria, but we’re just starting. This is a very long-term journey, as I have indicated to you guys. And along the way, yes, there will be problems.
“I can tell you that since we started this program in November of last year, we had less than 18 pumps, dispensers in Nigeria doing CNG commercially.
Today, we have almost 60 of them. And people are building every day. If we go to Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMPDRA) there’s about 120 awaiting applications to install”.
“And NMPDRA have now signaled and said, refueling stations have to now introduce CNG as part of their setup all over Nigeria. And you’re going to begin to see this revolution. But I think it’s good for us to understand that a journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step”.
