Contrary to its earlier stance that conversion of vehicles to run on autogas will be for free, the federal government said on Wednesday that vehicles owners must be ready to cough out a whooping N250,000 to convert their cars.
Government is also targeting to convert at least one million vehicles to run on autogas before the end of the year 2020.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, the Programme Manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Project, Justice Derefaka said conversion of cars from petrol to run on gar will take approximately seven hours.
The conversion will not only reduce demand for petrol, it will also ensure reduction in carbon emissions.
Derefaka, who is also the Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva said very soon conversion centres will be opened across the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The petroleum minister had said in September that the government will convert the vehicles of Nigerians to run on gas for free to cushion the effect of the hike in pump price of petrol.
But speaking on Wednesday, Derefaka said there are different payment approaches to making the conversion, adding that vehicle owners can have agreement with commercial banks to get their conversion done.
“The conversion of your vehicle is not something that will take three weeks or seven days; it will take you around seven to eight hours because they (technicians) need to do a diagnosis of your vehicle to see if it is fit for conversion. After that, they will test for roadworthiness and then proceed.”
On who bears the cost of the conversion, Derefaka said, “Who owns the car? The owner of the car basically will decide to say I want to run on autogas or CNG or LNG and like the honourable minister had mentioned before, conversion has basic strands, you can partner with your bank and the bank will now agree with the conversion centre to convert your vehicle, not for free entirely.
“The installer will now put some form of mechanism that each time you buy the gas; a certain amount will be deducted to pay for the conversion kit. Some people will say it is too expensive but I don’t think it is because within a period of five to seven months, you’ve already paid off the cost.
“The cost varies, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle but on the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder vehicle.”
Derefaka noted that some centres have started the conversion already. “If you take your vehicle to some of the centres like the one commissioned yesterday (Tuesday), technicians and original equipment manufacturers are there so you can bring your vehicles for conversion to start running on gas.”
He also said 50 conversion centres will be upgraded and by January 2021, there will be conversion centres across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
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