FG makes U-turn on autogas conversion, says vehicle owners to pay N250,000

The federal government (FG) says vehicle owners will pay N250,000 to convert their automobiles to run on autogas.

Justice Derefaka, technical adviser on gas business and policy implementation to minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this on Wednesday when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels TV.

However, on Tuesday, Mele Kyari, group managing director (GMD) of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), had said the FG will convert 1 million cars to run on autogas free of charge.

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GMD @NNPCgroup Mallam @MKKyari explains the process of converting 1,000,000 cars to be powered by Autogas, free of charge.

"We see this as a service to #Nigerians and also as a business for the Corporation."#NGEP #NigeriaGoGas #YearOfGas pic.twitter.com/MWkJDJqQYr

— NNPC Limited (@nnpclimited) December 1, 2020

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“You bring your car to a location and then we fit in the things you need to call the gas and also to receive the gas into your car,” Kyari had said.

“All the 1 million cars that we promised will be done through a structure that the ministry of petroleum resources will put in place to ensure that any Nigerian who has to convert his car will get it done for free.”

According to Derefaka, automobile owners can partner with their banks to choose a convenient payment plan or go for a different approach.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

He explained that the price varies according to the cylinder of the vehicle, assuring that autogas is cost- effective compared to petrol.

“The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher 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 SUV vehicle,” he said.