As part of the efforts to ease transportation challenges in the country, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has inaugurated 30 compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered buses at the state house, Abuja on Monday.
The inauguration comes as part of the promise to ease fuel subsidy removal on the citizens.
Present at the occasion was the Chairman of Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Winifred Akpani, who described the formal unveiling of the buses as a game changer for the transport sector.
The first phase of procurement shows 30 buses which were acquired from Innoson Motors, an indigenous vehicle manufacturing firm.
President Tinubu also commented on how commercial vehicles make up about 80 percent of the nation’s petrol consumption and was costing the country trillions of naira. He also explained the importance of adopting the CNG buses into the transport system, as other countries like India have done. He termed it an economic necessity.
“The solution is here. We have it, we will work on it. We promise you, definitely things will get better, prosperity will be achieved.” He said.
Akpani also told newsmen that the buses were hybrid buses that could run on CNG and an alternative of diesel. Its design and manufacture by Innoson Motors, a Nigerian company in Nnewi was also mentioned and appreciated. Akpani said:
“We believe that these buses will be put to use especially since we know that more donations are coming and we thank the President for this opportunity.
“I’ll like to state that as part of our delivery, we’ve made provision that each of these buses will have two drivers and we are going to have trained at the facility that they have been manufactured. Here, we request that whoever get the buses at the end please can they contact DAPPMAN so that we can arrange those training, because we think is very important that these buses are properly handled for durability and that they can go a long way.
“We are very sure that this will contribute in bringing down transportation cost and we know that if transportation cost comes down, food and so many other things will follow. Since transportation seems to be one of the big issues we have in Nigeria”.
Also present was the Managing Director of NNPC Foundation, Emmanuella Arukwe, who mentioned that NNPC contributed 10 of the 30 buses presented by DAPPMAN to the President. He also commented on the focus of the foundation which is energy and the environment. Highlighting the cleanliness and access to energy of the buses which aligns with the foundation’s vision and objective.
According to Arukwe: “So, for the public this is the way to go. Because once they can pay their transport fare as we know people move around a lot, these are very big buses that can take up to 100 people, so it is significant that if we have more CNG buses, the transport fare will be greatly reduced. It will really help the economy in terms of people moving around which is different from what we have with the PMS.”
The buses are expected to begin operation immediately. It is hoped that the CNG buses would be equally distributed to other states where transportation is also an issue.
