Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing’s Founder and CEO, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, has revealed that the public can soon look forward to more affordable transportation options with the introduction of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered buses.
Chukwuma also encouraged Nigerians to be patient with the administration of President Bola Tinubu, urging them to “give him time” to implement his plans.
“I’ve spoken with President Tinubu, and soon there will be plenty of CNG buses available for the masses,” Chukwuma shared with journalists after a private meeting with the President at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.
The automobile mogul praised the Presidential CNG Initiative as a groundbreaking solution for the nation’s transportation sector.
“The government’s CNG initiative is the best strategy for transportation in Nigeria,” Chukwuma explained. “CNG offers numerous benefits for our country, which is why I began producing vehicles that run on CNG even before the initiative was announced. Today, anyone who experiences CNG will see that it is indeed the way forward for our nation.”
This meeting came on the heels of President Tinubu’s nationwide address five days prior, where he committed to distributing “a million kits at extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods, which currently consume 80 percent of the imported Premium Motor Spirit and Automotive Gas Oil.”
President Tinubu emphasized that despite Nigeria’s vast oil and gas reserves, the country has been overly dependent on oil-based petrol, overlooking its gas resources as a means to power the economy. He asserted that the CNG initiative would save Nigeria a staggering N2 trillion every month.
“We’ve been using our valuable foreign exchange to pay for and subsidize oil-based petrol. To address this, we’ve launched the Compressed Natural Gas Initiative to power our transportation economy and cut costs,” Tinubu said. “This initiative will save over two trillion Naira monthly, funds that are currently spent on importing PMS and AGO, and will free up resources for more significant investments in healthcare and education.”