President Bola Tinubu spoke to millions of Nigerians about the country’s situation.
People have had to pay more for food, travel, and other needs since the controversial end of fuel subsidies.
Tinubu’s words about transit made people look twice. He said that he would spend N100 billion to buy 3,000 CNG 20-seater buses by March 2024.
He said that some transportation businesses would use a credit account to buy buses. He said that transport companies could buy the buses at 9% interest and pay them back over 60 months.
Instead of electric or internal combustion engines, CNG buses use gasoline.
In other areas, natural gas has also been thought of as an alternative to gasoline. When the cost of public transport went up, some Nigerians switched to diesel engines.
CNG is cheaper, but it comes with risks that many people don’t know about. Lanre Mojola, who is in charge of the Lagos State Safety Commission, says that changing their generators could cause them to explode because of gas buildup and direct sunlight.
He worked to get people to make sure the process of change was safe.
With the promise of 3,000 CNG buses, the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) recently asked the government to use its current infrastructure for the project. Doing this would make sure that the government has to pay for outsourcing the infrastructure project.
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African CNG car performance
Other efforts to accelerate Nigeria’s usage of CNG buses preceded Tinubu’s new remarks.
The country’s 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were maximized by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2020 Natural Gas Expansion Programme.
Focus on the programme’s goal of introducing CNG buses. Nigeria and Iran agreed to help the area use more natural gas to fuel automobiles after the project began.
Cote d’Ivoire was interested in CNG cars before Nigeria in 2018. Amadou Koné and other officials launched a CNG bus fleet in December. They opened Abidjan’s first CNG station.
The government adopted CNG to comply with the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement addresses climate change. Since 2016, the goal has been to maintain the global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrialization.
CNG is eco-friendly and cheaper than fuel.
African nations should consider alternative bus and automobile fuels. Cars and trucks across the continent emit roughly 13% of the world’s carbon.
The buses for Tanzania’s Phase II Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system will run on compressed natural gas (CNG), according to the country’s announcement. It was bought in May.
There are 260,000 CNG cars in Egypt. Between July 2022 and March 2023, 688 places to fill up with CNG opened. It will soon want $1,000. Egypt’s interest in CNG buses grew as its gas output went up.
CNG buses or electric buses in Nigeria?
Nigeria has thought about switching to CNG and electricity on a large scale to lower its reliance on petrol. The government bought electric buses from a local company, JET Motor Company, last month. That was meant to make people feel better about the government’s push for EVs.
EVs are expensive, which means that most people can’t buy them. In addition to the price, a lack of charging infrastructure and a lack of understanding keep most people from using it. But they are good for the earth. They cost less to maintain than ICE.
Nigeria must reduce its reliance on gasoline for transportation. Long-term, the goal is to lower its carbon footprint, but right now, the goal is to make subsidy removal less painful.
Nigeria should put CNG cars at the top of its list because it has a lot of gas. There are also problems in the power industry. There are always blackouts in rural areas. Nigeria should give CNG cars more attention than EVs.
President Tinubu must make sure that the plan does more than just what he said on TV. Buses will last longer if they are well maintained. This is hard because Nigeria has a bad attitude towards maintenance. But if these buses (and finally electric buses) are to become the norm on our roads, they need to be easy to use.
Several CNG trucks, vans, and SUVs were made available by Innoson. Since Innoson is a local business, it would make sense for the government to buy CNG cars from them. That makes the market better. A 54-seater bus is much bigger than the 20-seater bus in the speech. To get people’s attention and maybe even work with them, other local businesses need to make buses with the number of seats the government wants.