The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has commenced the conversion of all its operational vehicles to run on Compressed Natural Gas CNG.
According to the agency, the development would help it key into the federal government efforts at reducing the cost of governance.
Managing Director of the agency, Emeka Agbasi disclosed this in Abuja shortly after signing a Memorandum of Understanding MoU with the Programme Director of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas initiative PCNGI, Mr Michael Oluwagbemi.
It was learnt that FERMA is the first government agency to make its operational vehicles CNG-enabled.
Agbasi noted that with the number of operations whicker in FERMA’s fleet, it had become imperative to cut the cost of premium motor spirit and diesel which he said had in the past contributed substantially to the recurrent expenditure of the agency.
He said; “The cost of premium motor spirit and diesel contributed substantially to the recurrent expenditure of our agency in view of the number of operational vehicles in our fleet.
“We strongly believe that with the CNG initiative this will be drastically reduced for better and efficient service delivery.”
Also speaking, the Programme Director of PCNGI, Michael Oluwagbemi, while commending FERMA for the initiative of converting its vehicles, disclosed that the agency, with the conversion of FERMA’s fleet, will cut its expenditure by between 40 to 70 percent.
According to Oluwagbemi, the MOU will be for the first four years and renewable for another four years as the framework for the agreement aims to deepen the collaboration between the two agencies.
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He disclosed further that the initiative will convert all commercial vehicles owned by road transport unions free of charge, while it will subsidise ride hailing companies by 50 percent to convert their vehicles.
Oluwagbemi noted that the move “is to drive down the cost of transportation as the CNG is way cheaper, cleaner, and sustainable than fuel.”
He added that, “Our goal is to convert over two million cars in collaboration with the private sector partners who have already begun the process in various centres across the country.”
