President Muhammadu Buhari has asked Nigerians to embrace gas as an alternative to fuel in the country.
The President made this call on Tuesday during the unveiling of the National Gas Expansion Programme and National Autogas Roll-out Initiative
“I, therefore, encourage everyone to embrace gas in form of LPG, CNG and LNG as an alternative fuel for autos and other prime-movers,” he said.
“The Minister of State Petroleum Resources is hereby directed to commence the process of hand over of mass transit buses to Organized Labour as part of our government’s pledge to continue providing the support that will ease the transportation challenges Nigerians are facing at this time.”
On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the Ministry is focusing on the development of skills, technology and manpower as well as growth in the utilisation of LPG, CNG and LNG.
He said that the National Gas Expansion programme which was initiated this year to boost the utilization of gas in the short and medium-term “is expected to create two million jobs per annum, promote skills acquisition and enhance technology transfer in addition to growing the nation’s GDP.”
The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kolo Kyari said from 2016 to 2019, the Federal Government had spent over three trillion Naira subsidizing the pump price of petroleum products particularly petrol.
Kyari insisted that the subsidy regime did not benefit the masses that President Buhari is passionate about.
According to the NNPC boss, the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it impossible to continue with the onerous subsidy regime.
