Fresh Allegation Made Against Suspended CBN Governor, Emefiele

By - LagosCityReporters 28 August 2023 Comments (0) 3 Mins Read

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The Chairman of the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), Mohammed Ibrahim, has blamed the suspended Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for making the programme’s N250 billion fund dormant in the bank.

Ibrahim claimed that it was the suspended CBN boss who made the N250 billion National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) fund dormant in the apex bank for four years.

According to him, Emefiele had refused to listen to his team about the conditions put in place by the apex bank for stakeholders in the autogas industry to access the fund.

He said the conditions to be met for accessing the fund were rather stringent for companies involved in the autogas value chain to access, and Emefiele had refused to make them less burdensome that no individual or company had access to any portion of the fund domiciled with the CBN.

Speaking during the Annual Training Workshop of the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) with the theme, “Fuel Subsidy Removal: Autogas/Electric Vehicles as Alternatives,” Ibrahim noted that the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu had frustrated the activities of the subsidy cabals and some stakeholders who said the gas expansion programme would never work.

He disclosed that the Federal Government has, however, concluded plans to roll out 9000 autogas filling stations from the existing 10,000 retail outlets across the country under NGEP within the next six months.

He stated that the promise of the Tinubu-led administration to create 100 million jobs was achievable with the gas expansion programme, saying the multi-fuel scheme, which enables vehicle owners to fill their tanks with liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) as well as the conventional premium motor spirit would take off in the next six months despite resistance from some stakeholders.

According to him, over 5 million conversion kits were needed to convert 30 million internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to CNG or LNG, which would create 12.5m jobs. He noted that autogas has the potential “to really reflate the economy if it is properly done.”

He said, “Under our NGEP programme, we have what we call the multi-fuel scheme whereby we do not intend to shut down the current petrol stations that we have in the country, about 10,000 of them and like I said earlier, we have carried out an audit whereby 9000 of 10,000 qualify to retrofit to become multi-fuel.

“So what is going to happen, and we have a couple already in the system, is that you drive into a filling station, you are going to have dispensing facilities for your petrol, diesel, and kerosene, but in addition, you are going to have the dispensing facilities with the cryogenic tower that enables you to have access to LNG and also a dispensing pump for CNG and also a charging point for your electric vehicles.

“So it becomes a multi-fuel retail outlet that enables you to have access to LNG for your long hauls, CNG for your 300km maximum and conventional petrol, diesel and kerosene.

“But you don’t even need a separate CNG facility because all you just need is if you have your cryogenic tower, you can generate CNG from your LNG in your station by the addition of a pump.”