As part of deliberate efforts to ensure safety and standards, the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) is set to commence the accreditation and certification of compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion workshops, the NADDC Director-General, Oluwemimo Osanipin, has said.
According to Autogas Africa, there are over 120 CNG conversion centres with 466 skilled technicians operating across the country. Each workshop can convert a minimum of two petrol vehicles to CNG per day, indicating that CNG conversion is increasingly gaining acceptance.
Osanipin stated this at a stakeholders’ engagement in Abuja.
“You are all aware that NADDC, as the regulatory agency for the automotive industry, is promoting and creating an enabling environment for the use of CNG as an alternative and cheaper transportation fuel and last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNG-i) as a successor to the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP),” he said.
Represented by the Director of Research, Design and Development in NADDC, Dr Fidelis Achiv, Osanipin explained that the stakeholders’ engagement was to sensitise converters on the rules and regulations guiding the CNG conversion.
He stressed that among the objectives of the initiative is the utilisation of CNG as an alternative transportation fuel to cushion the impact of subsidy removal.
He explained: “Nigeria must leverage on the natural gas resources, and transform it to an energy that will drive the automotive wheels of the nation. Over the last few years, the council has similarly organised a sensitisation and awareness campaign on the safety and benefits of using autogas (CNG) as an alternative fuel to petrol and diesel.”
While emphasising the importance of the campaign, Osanipin said it has recorded success in enlightening and encouraging Nigerians to patronise the CNG conversion centres.
The Programme Coordinator, Zayyanu Tambari Yabo, said by 2027, about one million CNG vehicles would be produced while over N3 billion investment would be realised in the sector.
Yabo solicited the support of all stakeholders to ensure the success of the CNG initiative.
Also speaking, Dauda Suleiman of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) promised the institute’s support towards realising the objectives of the CNG initiative.
