The Federal Government (FG) has advised Nigerians to patronize locally-assembled CNG vehicles.

FG stated that buying the CNG vehicles will reduce pressure on the use of Premium Motor Spirit and diesel in the country.

Recall that FG had provided N100bn for the purchase of 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses, more than 20,000 CNG conversion kits, and the development of CNG refilling stations after the removal of fuel subsidy.

Emphasizing the admonishment of the government, the Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Oluwemimo Osanipin, stated that the CNG as best for Nigerians from all fronts considering its affordable cost.

He said: “My appeal to Nigerians is for all of us to start adopting this initiative and start buying Nigeria-assembled CNG vehicles. It will save us from more expenses. Just like we just heard from one of the engineers now, a 60k of CNG will cover more than 300 kilometres, if you compare that to a petrol or diesel-powered vehicle, you will know that CNG is good for Nigerians.

“Just as you can see, there are pickups here which are assembled here as CNGs and right in this facility we have a place where conversions are done, this means we are ready and the assemblers are ready too.”

He further noted that the automobile industry was also ready to move from assembling cars, trucks and buses to the production of car components.

He added: “We are here to look at what they are doing, assess what they are doing to determine how to take it further from where we are now to a greater stage. Some of these things we import can be done here and that is what we want to see happen.

"We want to see some of these things done right here in the factory and the CEO of Lanre Shittu has just told me that their other facility over there, which is under construction is for welding while the painting site will be somewhere in Ogun state. This means that we are moving from SKD to CKD.

“Our first support is patronage and not just by the government but all Nigerians. We can do it, most of the trucks on our roads now are assembled in Nigeria, so let us all embrace the CNG initiative and replicate what we have done in trucks to buses and cars, let us assemble here and together we can achieve this and a better Nigeria together.”