FG begins conversion of operational vehicles to CNG

As part of its attempts to lower the cost of governance, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, or FERMA, has started converting all of its operational trucks to run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.

This was revealed in Abuja by the agency’s managing director, Emeka Agbasi, immediately after he and Mr. Michael Oluwagbemi, the program director of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas initiative PCNGI, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The first government organization to equip its operational cars with CNG is FERMA.

Agbasi noted that with the number of operation whicker in FERMA’s fleet, it had become imperative to cut the cost of premium motor spirit and diesel which he said had in the past contributed substantially to the recurrent expenditure of the agency.

He said; “The cost of premium motor spirit and diesel contributed substantially to the recurrent expenditure of our agency in view of the number of operational vehicles in our fleet. We strongly believe that with the CNG initiative this will be drastically reduced for better and efficient service delivery.”

Commending FERMA for the initiative of converting its vehicles, the Programme Director of PCNGI, Michael Oluwagbemi said with the conversion of FERMA’s fleet, the agency will cut its expenditure by between 40 to 70 percent.

Oluwagbemi said the MOU will be for the first four years and renewable for another four years as the framework for the agreement aims to deepen the collaboration between the two agencies.

According to him, the initiative will convert all commercial vehicles owned by road transport unions free of charge, while it will subsidise ride hailing companies by 50 percent to convert their vehicles.

Oluwagbemi added that the move “is to drive down the cost of transportation as the CNG is way cheaper, cleaner, and sustainable than fuel”.

“Our goal is to convert over two million cars in collaboration with the private sector partners who have already begun the process in various centres across the country”, he added.