FG invests over $450 million in CNG —PCNGi

THE Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGi) on Monday said that it had invested more than 450 million U.S. dollars in the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) value chain.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Project Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), PCNGi, Mr Michael Oluwagbemi, disclosed this during the 9th edition of the Nigeria Energy Forum (NEF2024) Day 2, Virtual Event in Lagos.

The theme of the 9th Edition of NEF is: “Energising Sustainable Industrialisation”.

According to the PCNGi CEO, the amount goes into things like mother stations, daughter stations and refueling stations as well as conversion centres which are starting to spring up across the nation.

Oluwagbemi, who was represented by Mr Tosin Coker, the Head of Commercial, PCNGi, said the initiative had successfully converted more than 10,000 vehicles from petrol to CNG.

“By 2027, the initiative will have converted more than one million vehicles using petrol to CNG,” he said.

On incidents of explosion of vehicles using CNG, the CEO assured Nigerians that it had taken precautionary measures with different agencies of government to ensure safety.

Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, National Coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), managed by UNDP, said the SGP was investing in youth energy innovation for economic growth and environmental sustainability.

Dr Daniel Adeuyi, NEF Group Chairman, said, “The event featured three super sessions on Energising Industrial Revolution, Community Climate Action by GEF-SGP UNDP and Clean Energy Innovations.

“The sessions are to share lessons learnt from real-life projects and build capacity of young entrepreneurs and cross-industry professionals.”

Mr Joseph Osanipin, the Director General, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), said that the council had trained more than 4,000 auto technicians on how to convert petrol vehicles to CNG.

He said the council had started campaigns to sensitise Nigerians on the advantages of using CNG to power their vehicles.

“CNG can guarantee cleaner environment, it is cheaper and affordable,” he said.

Mr Oluwatobi Ajayi, the Chairman and Managing Director, Nord Automobile Ltd., said the company was established to tackle the growing demand for vehicles in Africa and reduce import dependency.

He said that because of the Federal Government’s CNG initiative, the company had incorporated it into its vehicle production to meet up with the government policy.

Dr Armstrong Tankan, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), said that MOFI was set up in 1959 as the statutory vehicle to hold all the assets owned by the federal government.

“Today, we’ve been able to identify the assets the federal government owns, and we are trying to track them.

‘We actually do have assets, not just locally but globally as well, and it’s very important that we establish visibility over what the federal government owns before we can start talking about managing them.

“So, we want to try to minimise the waste, minimise the overlaps, and help to improve output,” he said.

Mr Adekunle Makinde, NEF Co-chair, said, “The 9th Africa Energy Innovation Challenge (AEIC) attracted over 140 entries from 25 different countries across Africa, with over 99% of entries as first-time participants.

“The 2024 AEIC has GEF-SGP UNDP as principal supporter, with Afrexim Bank and Oando Clean Energy Ltd. as co-supporters.

“The top three winners of the youth innovation contest were awarded grant prizes to upscale and deploy innovative energy solutions across real-life applications.

“The first prize of N2 million was awarded to solar-powered dehydrators for agro-processing.

“The second prize of N1.5 million was awarded to irrigation loop by Thinpower, while the third prize of N1 million went to solar-powered irrigation and cold storage for farmers,” Makinde said.

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