CNG: 81 Firms Now Licensed To Retail Gas In Nigeria — NADDC

The director-general and chief executive officer of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, has disclosed that 81 firms have so far been licensed to retail Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Nigeria.

Osanipin disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said the growing number of licensed CNG retailers indicated that Nigeria was making progress in expanding the infrastructure required to support the federal government’s CNG policy.

According to him, the implementation of the policy requires significant investment in filling stations, mobile refuelling units and gas production facilities before its full impact can be felt across the country.

“You can’t put a policy in place today, and you start having the immediate impact,” he said.

Osanipin explained that investments were already being made to develop the infrastructure needed to make CNG more readily available to motorists.

He said the agency responsible for the CNG programme had informed him that about 81 firms had now been licensed to engage in gas retailing, compared with only about four previously.

“So, which means we are making progress in that regard. When you realize that we have about four before, and now we have this, so gas are now more available in some states,” he said.

The NADDC boss also highlighted the potential savings motorists could make by switching from petrol to CNG.

He recounted the experience of a motorist who travelled to Jigawa and Kano and was able to refuel with CNG in Kano, significantly reducing his fuel expenditure.

“I was discussing with someone that I travelled to Jigawa, filled, and filled again. When he got to Kano, he saw CNG, got gas in Kano, and he filled, and he was able to reduce its cost from over N200,000 to about N40-something thousand naira, and that’s massive,” Osanipin said.

He noted that fleet operators were already among those benefiting from the CNG policy, adding that the next stage would be to ensure that the benefits of lower operating costs were reflected in prices paid by ordinary Nigerians.

“I have seen a lot of people that are benefiting from it, but they refuse to transfer the price to the masses. So that is going to be the next stage,” he said.

Osanipin, however, stressed that the government must first ensure that the necessary infrastructure was sufficiently developed before moving to stronger enforcement of policies designed to deepen CNG adoption.

He said the expansion of CNG infrastructure was part of broader efforts to improve transportation and promote cleaner energy alternatives in the country.

On electric vehicles, the NADDC DG disclosed that infrastructure had been provided in about 16 universities as part of efforts to support the development and adoption of electric mobility.

He also said the first batch of electric vehicles promised by President Tinubu to civil servants had been delivered.

“And today you must have heard in the news that the first batch of the electric vehicle that the President promised civil servants, the first batch was delivered today, and they are all electric vehicles, and this is the beginning of more and more that will come,” he said.

Osanipin said the developments were part of the government’s broader efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s automotive sector and facilitate the transition towards cleaner and more affordable transportation options.