President Bola Tinubu has commissioned the first set of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, buses locally manufactured by Innoson Motors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Speaking at the commissioning of the first batch of 20 set of CNG buses at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, President Tinubu who acknowledged the difficulties experienced by Nigerians in transportation due to the subsidy removal, said the buses will help to ease transportation problems.

He said utilising natural gas to power our transportation industry is a major economic necessity and the next way to go.

“If we can enhance our energy competitiveness and bring about transformative changes like this, we would definitely be able to achieve the prosperity that we are working hard to accomplish for our people.

“These buses along with the CNG and being convertible is very encouraging and promising to enhance our transportation system. Countries like India have mandated CNG for commercial vehicles since 2004 and in Nigeria, commercial vehicles make up about 80 percent of our petrol demand costing us trillions of naira each month. The solution is here. 

We have it, we will work on it. We promise you, definitely things will get better, prosperity will be achieved, President said.

Our correspondent, Raliat Adenekan reports that the Chairperson of Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Winifred Akpani presenting the 20 buses donations, expressed delight that the hybrid CNG buses were manufactured and delivered by an indigenous company, Innoson motors.

She stressed that the buses are capable of transporting 100 people and can equally run on diesel, adding that to ensure proper maintenance and durability, each bus will have two drivers, who will be trained at the facility that they have been manufactured, with direct supervision of DAPPMAN. 

Speaking to State House Correspondents later, DAPPMAN chairman on the pledge of 100 buses made last year, said “Certainly, this is part of what we promised last year. We did say at least 50 buses, today we brought 30, DAPPMAN has brought 20 and another larger marketer brought 10. 

 You know the independent marketer is quite large, we are hoping that this will spur others to do more. So that every state you go to in Nigeria, you will see CNG buses and that is what is so important, the CNG buses is suppose to bring down the cost of transportation.

 As we heard the President said that 80 percent of our fuel are being spent on commercial vehicles, we are hoping that this one to a large extent will enhance our prosperity in Nigeria.”

Also speaking, the Managing Director of  NNPC Foundation, Emmanuella Arukwe, said NNPC contributed 10 of the 30 buses presented by DAPPMAN to the President. 

“We committed to 10 CNG buses to DAPPMAN which is what we have delivered today. We are excited to be part of this initiative. Although it is NNPC initiative but for us in the foundation, we are really committed on our area of focus which is energy and the environment. 

As you know, these are CNG buses, they are clean energy buses, aside from that, access to energy is one of the key areas we are focused on. So, it aligns with our vision and objective, so we are excited that we are part of NNPC drive towards making ensure that people have access to energy especially towards making sure that people have access to duel fuel which is environmentally friendly.”

On its significance to the economy, Arukwe said: “It’s very significant because for example filling those 10 buses will cost a little money. We know that CNG apart from being clean is much more cheaper, because is cheaper to fuel the vehicle the price is going to be way down. 

So, for the public this is the way to go. Because once they can pay their transport fire as we know people move around a lot, these are very big buses that can take up to 100 people, so is significant that if we have more CNG buses, the transport fare will be greatly reduced. It will really help the economy in terms of people moving around which is different from what we have with the PMS.”