Tag: Nigeria..

…..Considers buses, tricycles, targets one million automobiles by 2027

Felicia Asuquo

As part of activities marking this year President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one year in office,the federal government has concluded plans to launch and deploy Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles for mass transit, starting this May.

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga,yesterday.

Onanuga said while considering buses and tricycles in addition, the government targeted about one million automobiles by 2027. He said the committee led by Michael Oluwagbemi was set to deliver cheaper, safer and more climate-friendly energy vehicles.

Onanuga said the committee had fulfilled some foundational reforms to enable the new CNG and electric vehicles deliver the future Tinubu promised.

He added that all was ready for delivery of the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch of the vehicles ahead of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration on May 29.

The presidential aide assured that from the end of May this year, Nigeria would join the league of nations with large fleets of CNG vehicles.

According to him”,the federal government provided N100 billion, as part of the N500 billion palliative budget, to purchase 5,500 CNG vehicles, being part of the many intervention programmes to cushion the effect of increase in petrol pump price on the masses. This included buses and tricycles, 100 electric buses and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, spurring the development of CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations.” he stated.

Onanuga went further to state that with necessary tax and duty waivers approved by Tinubu in December 2023, the private sector partners in the Presidential CNG Initiative (PCNGI) had responded with over $50 million in actual investments in refuelling stations, conversion centres, and mother stations.

“A safety policy document on 80 standards and regulations that must be strictly adhered to by operators has been developed and approved to ensure CNG conversions are done safely and reliably.

“The deployment of CNG buses and tricycles and the vision to get at least one million natural gas propelled vehicles on our roads by 2027 will mark a major energy transition in our country’s transportation industry.

“The use of more expensive diesel and PMS will gradually be phased out, when many vehicles, including trucks, run on natural gas, which our nation has in abundance in at least 30 out of the 36 states of the federation.”he submitted.

Onanuga stressed that one of the main causes of air pollution was the amount of gases emitted by gasoline and diesel engines, adding that to mitigate pollution, some countries, like India, China, Iran, Pakistan, Brazil, Argentina, and Italy, have built fleets of natural gas powered vehicles, instead of going the route of relying on liquid petroleum products propelled vehicles, as natural gas vehicles reduce tail pipe emission by up to 40 percent.

He added that Nigeria’s commitment to this course would enable the country meet her nationally determined commitments (NDCs) under Paris Climate Accord to which it is a signatory.
According to Onanuga, “Four plants owned by JET, Mikano, Mojo, and Brilliant EV located in various parts of the country are involved in the assembly of the Semi Knocked Down (SKD) components of the CNG buses.

“JET, which has received the SKD parts, is coupling the buses in Lagos and is working towards delivering 200 units before the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration.

“Brilliant EV will assemble electric vehicles. It is awaiting the SKD parts, which will arrive in due course. The electric vehicles it will produce are meant for states, such as Kano and Borno, which do not have access to CNG for now.

“They will also be available in key Nigerian cities and university campuses. It must be noted that soon to be completed gas pipeline projects initiated by the Buhari administration and being completed by NNPCL (the AKK Pipeline) will take gas into the hinterlands of North-east and North-west where there is current paucity.”

He said over 600 buses were targeted for production in the first phase that will be accomplished this year while a new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will assemble thousands of tricycles.

“The SKD parts manufactured by the Chinese company LUOJIA in partnership with its local partner to support the consortium of local suppliers of CNG tricycles are set for shipment to Nigeria and expected to arrive early in May.

About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024.

“Thousands of conversion kits for petrol powered buses and taxis that want to migrate to CNG are also ready with CNG cylinders. The federal government intends to provide them at subsidised rates, especially to commercial vehicle drivers to bring down the cost of public transportation.”

As part of private sector collaboration, NIPCO and BOVAS are involved in offering refilling services for the CNG vehicles and also serving as conversion centres.

NIPCO is setting up 32 stations nationwide to offer the services. The company has completed the set-up of four of the CNG stations.

“Likewise, BOVAS is setting up eight stations in Ibadan, two each in Ekiti, Abuja and four in Ilorin. MRS is also involved. It is making efforts to announce where its refilling stations and conversion centres will be,” Onanuga added.

He also said NNPC Limited, which had launched an on-and-off CNG initiative in the past, was joining the new initiative and was soon expected to announce the locations for CNG refilling and CNG conversion centres nationwide.

The statement said PCNGI was working with 22 other agency-partners, including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria(SON) and Nigeria Automotive Design and Development Council, to deliver 80 Natural Gas Vehicle Conversion and Associated Appliances Standards for the country.

Onanuga said, “The Tinubu administration is an enabler of the evolving CNG industry. In collaboration with the private sector, the PCNGI is set to deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of this year.”

He explained that the vision of the president to deliver one million gas vehicles could not be possible without the private sector, including the RTEAN, NA, NURTW and players in the downstream sector of the transportation chain and financiers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Felicia Asuquo, Abuja

As the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) begins Friday, April 19, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre owners to arrest any parent, found near any of their facilities during the exercise.

JAMB Spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, gave the directive at the final briefing of the CBT centre owners, held virtually on Wednesday, 17th April 2024.

Benjamin said the directive became necessary following the intrusive disposition of some parents during the Board’s previous exercises.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, warned that any parent, who disobeys this order would not only be arrested but his ward would also be disqualified from sitting the examination.

“This measure is necessary as it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination infractions while others have, by their actions, disrupted the Board’s examinations in the past,” Benjamin said.

“Some miscreants also disguise as parents to infiltrate the centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions.

“Consequently, the Registrar disclosed that the Board has directed security operatives to work with the centres to apprehend any meddlesome parent, who come near the centres.”he stated.

“The Board’s helmsman noted that going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years. Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence, the determination to follow their wards to the examination venue with the aim of compromising examination officials.

“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination.”he submitted

Furthermore, the Registrar said all arrangements have been concluded for the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which will be held in over 700 CBT centres across the nation.

He disclosed that the Board expects a seamless exercise but it has nevertheless made adequate provision to tackle any technical glitch that might occur in the course of the examination.

He, however, warned that if a session experienced any technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions would be allowed to sit their examination as scheduled while the candidates in the challenged session would be rescheduled for the last session for the day or the following day or even further depending on the centre schedules.

Oloyede asked candidates to take note of this so that they will remain calm in the event of any disruption.

“In this wise, any candidate or parent, who disrupt any subsequent session on account of the failure of his/her session, would be disqualified outright from taking the examination,” he stated.

Oloyede appealed to centre owners to consider the assignment as a national engagement and not as a purely profit venture. He urged them to expose the bad eggs among them.

He expressed shock over multiple intelligence showing how the CBT centres have been making efforts to compromise the Board’s staff especially with the offer of accommodation. He asked why they would want to do that when they constantly complain that what is paid them is not enough.

He said the centres should not hesitate to expose any staff, who ask for such favours as the Board had sufficiently paid its staff for the exercise in line with government regulations adding that any centre which persists in doing so, might have something to hide.