The Executive Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles, Barrister Ismaeel Ahmed, has said Nigeria’s CNG supply will soon surpass petrol availability as the country accelerates the expansion of gas infrastructure and vehicle conversions nationwide.
Speaking in an interview on Arise News on Monday, Ahmed said the country’s CNG sector had recorded rapid growth, with 96 refuelling stations, more than 400 conversion centres and about 120,000 converted vehicles nationwide.
“Very soon, Nigeria is going to be a country where we are going to outpace the availability for petrol. We need to move to a point where we are going to mandate as a government that all commercial vehicles must run away from PMS and diesel, because that was never our petroleum defense.
“First of all, I think it’s significant progress, you know. Where we were coming from in 2023 was about less than 10 CNG refueling stations in Nigeria, less than probably 5 conversion centers in Nigeria, and less than maybe a little over 100 cars that are converted to CNG. Three years, Nigeria has the fastest adoption rate of CNG. Three years later, we have 96 refueling stations all over the country, we have about 400 plus conversion centers (private sector led conversion centers), and then we have 120,000 converted vehicles.”
Speaking on the next phase of the initiative, Ahmed said the government’s priority was to ensure that passengers became the primary beneficiaries of the savings from cheaper CNG.
He explained that operators saving between 60 and 70 per cent on fuel costs must transfer the savings to commuters, adding that the government was engaging state governments and CNG users to address the issue.
“In 2.0, our drive is to say that the final destination is the passenger—not the person who is selling the gas, not the person who is compressing the gas, not the person who is dispensing the gas, not the operator of the vehicle, but the passenger. If the operator of the vehicle is saving 60 to 70% from gas as opposed to what he would have spent on petrol, and he’s not transferring it, then the purpose of having a cheaper fuel for transportation has been defeated.”
Addressing the conversion of petrol and diesel vehicles to CNG, Ahmed said the government initially provided free conversions to encourage motorists to adopt the cheaper fuel while focusing on creating demand and expanding refuelling infrastructure.
“We are pursuing it vigorously. The government is pushing seriously to have a conversation.
“The President just had a meeting with state governors on the 27th of August, and they made a commitment that they are going to make sure that they explore in their own states, because transportation routes, cars, vehicles, and transportation mass transit are majorly owned by state governments, really. But now we have to go to the second phase where the passenger is the most important beneficiary in the whole of this, and we are working towards that,” he said.
Emphasising the shift towards scale, Ahmed said the proof of concept for CNG had already been established, with motorists increasingly converting their vehicles, adding that the government’s priority was now to expand the programme nationwide.
“But our focus right now—our focus is scale. The proof of concept has already been proven. People are moving in droves and converting in droves. Our point now is scale. We need to scale. Nigeria is a 220 million people strong country. We have 12 million vehicles; 55% to 60% of those vehicles are commercial vehicles.”
Explaining the infrastructure challenge, Ahmed said expanding CNG refuelling capacity required extensive backend networks, gas sources, pipelines and compression facilities, noting that the number of stations had risen to 96 from just three or four in 2023, largely through private-sector investment.
“The infrastructure, it’s not something that you switch and it comes. There’s a lot of work that needs to go in. So for every gas station, as opposed to any other station that you can see—for any gas station you see, either in Kano, in Kura local government in Kano, in Abuja, in Gwagwalada, anywhere—there has to be a network of back-end that connects to it. So there has to be a source of gas that comes out of it, there has to be a pipeline that brings the gas to the compression center.
“I’m telling you there are 90 plus—96 precisely—refueling stations in Nigeria today, up from what, 3 or 4 in 2023? At the latest of 2023.”
Addressing safety concerns surrounding CNG vehicle conversions, Ahmed expressed confidence in conversions carried out at NADDC-approved centres using SON-certified kits, while warning motorists against uncertified installations and the use of LPG cylinders for CNG vehicles.
“I am absolutely confident that whoever converts his or her vehicle under the approved conversion center by NADDC, with the certified conversion kits by SON that we have accredited as well, will not have any problem with safety.
“There are people who are quacks sitting on the side of the road who try to game the system. There are always people who will try to game the system, right? And for every incident that we have—and we have investigated, we’re using the police or whichever authority that is there—it always comes down to the point that somebody is picking an LPG gas cylinder from home and thinking that the same cylinder of LPG can work for CNG.
“We are doing a lot of advocacy against that, and we are involving the authorities, especially the police, to make sure that we crack down on the people who are doing it. But most importantly, we’re telling the motorists: it is for your safety and the safety of everyone around you for you not to go to another route to go and just get your car converted, because at the end of the day, these are hazardous instruments and they need to be done according to system.
“But if anyone does it according to the laws under these guidelines of the accredited centers (400 plus) and the conversion kits that have been certified by SON, you will have absolutely no problem.”
Calling for a broader shift away from petrol, Barrister Ahmed advocated a policy requiring commercial vehicles to adopt natural gas or electric power, arguing that the move would make transportation cleaner, cheaper and less vulnerable to fluctuations in global oil prices.
“Natural gas should be our fuel of choice. This should have started 10 years ago. We are going to try and convince the government to make a policy that all commercial vehicles should convert to natural gas or electric vehicles so that people will move cleaner, cheaper, and it will be affordable.
“Let’s sell our oil to the foreigners and earn money for it, and let’s use this and insulate ourselves from the vagaries of global oil prices and any skirmishes that might come internationally and send us on a tailspin domestically.”
Favour Odima
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