By: Babajide Okeowo
Nigeria will save about $2.5 billion yearly from every one million vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), the Federal Government has disclosed.
This is even as the government disclosed that CNG adoption will also reduce the pressure on foreign reserves and improve the value of the naira.
These disclosures were made by Michael Oluwagbemi, Programme Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential CNG Initiative (P-CNGi) at the South-South stakeholders’ engagement meeting on the CNG initiative, held in Port Harcourt, Rivers state recently.
“For every 1,000,000 vehicles that Nigeria moves from petrol to natural gas, the nation is not just saving between $2.5 billion to $3 billion every year, we are also reducing the pressure on our foreign reserves, increasing the value of our currency, enhancing our export, we are creating jobs, we are enabling technology and innovation for our petroleum and clean energy sectors.”
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He said aside from ensuring the adoption of CNG, the other mandate of the CNG initiative was to enable financing, as the funding gap for the sector is about $2.5 billion for the next three to four years.
“We recognise that the government alone can not provide all the money. We estimate that less than 20 percent of the financing of the sector will come from the government, rather than more than 80 percent of this will come from private players” he said.
He said investment in CNG will provide energy security and make Nigerian goods and services competitive as they are being driven by affordable fuel.
According to Oluwagbemi, external shocks — such as war affecting oil prices — will no longer affect Nigeria “because natural gas prices are controlled by the Nigerian government and not by what happens in the international market”.
He said Nigeria’s economy will be less exposed to cruel shocks experienced with crude oil.
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