The Federal Government (FG) has announced it was set to launch about 2,700 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and tricycles before May 29, 2024, when President Bola Tinubu turns one year in office, which was made known on Sunday in a statement by Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy. He said, “From the end of May, Nigeria will take some baby steps to join such nations that already have large fleets of CNG vehicles.
“All is now ready for delivery of the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch of CNG initiative ahead of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration on May 29.”
According to him, about 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29 and over 600 buses are projected for the first phase, which will be accomplished in 2024.
Following the announcement of the removal of fuel subsidy during President Tinubu’s inauguration speech on May 29, 2023, the Presidential CNG Initiative was launched in October 2023 to deliver safer, cheaper and more climate-friendly energy especially for mass transit.
The FG allocated about N100 billion (part of the N500 billion palliative budget) to buy about 5500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses and about 20,000 CNG conversion kits, with plans to establish CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations across the nation.
