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The Chairman, National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), Dr. Mohammed M. Ibrahim, has lamented that the N250bn National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) fund approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari and domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to encourage Nigerians to convert their retro vehicles to gas is still lying idle at the CBN almost three years after the fund was approved.
The NGEP chairman made the shocking disclosure while speaking at the 2023 Nigeria Automotive Journalists Association (NAJA) training workshop held in Lagos recently. The training, which attracted stakeholders and experts in the automotive and energy sectors, had ‘Fuel Subsidy: Autogas/Electric Vehicles As Alternatives’ as theme
According to Dr. Ibrahim, NGEP has N250 billion fund domiciled in the CBN for importation of conversion kits but that this fund cannot be accessed as he lamented the funding challenges in the implementation of the autos conversion project.
“We have a N250bn National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) fund domiciled in the Central Bank so that if you want to import conversion kits, if you want to import related products, you can access this fund.
“We are trying to review that fund because the immediate past CBN Governor, when the fund was made available, we went to him. We said, “Mr. Godwin Emefiele, you are not an expert in this business, we are experts and we can tell you the kind of products you can make available and the funds you can make available. So the conditions you attached to the funds are so stringent that nobody would be able to access the funds and he didn’t listen to us.
“Of course, nobody took it. So, we are hoping that now that we have a new Minister of State in charge of Gas who just assumed office and we believe that the government now is responsive to know that you do not make intervention funds for rice cultivation the same condition for CNG.
“It simply does not work. You cannot make the same intervention funds for fertilizer as you do for textile, it doesn’t work. So you have to have different products for different sectors. This is exactly what we said,” Ibrahim said.
