Pat Stevens/
The federal government has said that Nigerians will not bear the cost of converting fuel-powered vehicles from petrol to gas.
The government’s position contradicts an earlier statement by a top official of the petroleum ministry that individual vehicle owners would bear the cost of such conversion.
Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to Minister of State for Petroleum, Justice Derefaka, while on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, had disclosed the conversion would cost a minimum of N250,000.
The government’s latest position was contained in a tweet via @NigeriaGov today.
The tweet quoted Derefaka as saying that his earlier announcement was made in error.
See tweet below:
Derefaka also disclosed during the interview that the conversion of vehicles from petrol to autogas will take at least seven hours at the various conversion centres, adding that vehicle owners will have different payment plans to perform the conversion.
Derefaka, who is also the Programme Manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Project, said, “The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher. On the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle, but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder SUV vehicle.”
He had further stated, “The owner of the car basically will decide to say I want to run on autogas or CNG or LNG and like the Honourable Minister had mentioned as well, conversion basically has different strands, you can partner with your bank and then the bank will now agree with the conversion centre to say ‘Convert this our customer’s car for free’.
“Not free in its entirety, but you now go and covert your vehicle. What happens is that the installer will put some form of mechanism, that each time you buy the gas; a certain amount will be deducted to pay for the conversion kits.”
The Federal Government had on Tuesday launched the autogas scheme, called the National Gas Expansion Programme.
The programme involves the conversion of fuel-powered cars and generators from petrol to gas, and is aimed at deepening domestic usage of natural gas in its various forms.
The programme is also in line with the Federal Government’s plan to make gas the first choice source of cheaper and cleaner energy.
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