Tinubu wants filling stations converted to CNG outlets, says minister

Ekperipke Ekpo, minister of state for petroleum resources (gas), says President Bola Tinubu wants filling stations converted to compressed natural gas (CNG) outlets.

Ekpo spoke at the State House after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, presided over by the president.

The minister said Tinubu “gave a charge” regarding CNG, through the minister of information, during the FEC meeting.

“We are well aware that the president set up a presidential committee on the CNG to drive the CNG project,” Ekpo said.

“As a minister who has been supervising what has been going on there, it is left for us to inform the general public that CNG has come to stay, and we have to follow that route because CNG is safe, cheaper, and protects the environment.”

He said the president spoke about ensuring that “most of the filling stations across the country are converted into CNG stations, where you have the conversion kits so that people can convert their vehicle to CNG”.

“It is important to note that when you are using CNG, you save a lot of money. A litre of fuel that can go for N1000, with CNG, you get it at N200, which saves you N800,” Ekpo said.

“I believe, with the passion of Mr. President, the push that he has given to us, we’ll try as much as possible to drive the CNG programme to reach all the nooks and crannies of this country, so that we will take advantage of the natural resources (gas) that God has endowed us with.”

On October 22, Tinubu said Nigerians can choose between buying premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, at N1,000 per litre or CNG at N200 per standard cubic meter.

FEC APPROVES PTDF INITIATIVE FOR PRINTING OF 1 MILLION SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS

Also speaking to journalists, Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources (oil), said FEC approved an initiative by the petroleum technology development fund (PTDF) for the printing of one million science textbooks for secondary schools.

Lokpobiri said the memo was presented on behalf of the PTDF, which had initiated a programme called the “PTDF Stem Fund”.

“STEM is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Sometime ago, the PTDF, which is the creation of law, with the mandate to build the capacity of Nigerians in oil and gas industry, came up with a program called PTDF Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Programme,” he said.

“They sought to obtain presidential approval and today, we brought a memo to council to be able to print 1 million science textbooks.”

He added that the science courses that were identified as problem areas for Nigerians are physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and computer science.

“It is believed that for us to match up with the rest of the world, we needed to build capacity at the secondary school level,” the minister said.

Lokpobiri said the programme is meant “to print one million science textbooks that will be distributed to all the 74 local government areas in the country, and also to support the 104 unity schools that we have in the country, and then 122 special schools that we have in the country”.

“This memo was brought before Council. It was approved by council. Essentially, what is important is that this is a support and dual capacity at the secondary school level to match up with the rest of the world in terms of technological and engineering development. We need to lay a very solid foundation,” he said.

“Sometime ago, we found that we are lagging behind, and so we decided that, look, we are going to build both physical and digital libraries.”

The minister said a memo for PTDF to build digital and physical libraries in about 1,000 secondary schools in the country, was brought before FEC weeks ago and it was approved by the council.

Lokpobiri added that the new approval is to compliment “that effort of the PTDF that has a mandate that will boost capacity in Nigeria”.