The federal government has signed pacts with transporters to reduce their fare from N12,000 and N13,000 to N7,000 and N8,000 between Ajaokuta to Abuja.
Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNGI), Mr. Michael Oluwagbemi made this known at the agreement signing ceremony in Abuja on Friday.
The pact was signed with members of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) of Adavi, Ajaokuta, and Itakpe stations in Kogi State for the conversion of the vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered for reduction of fare by over 40% as from the end of October 2024.
Oluwagbemi said from Itakpe train station to Abuja will be N7,000 and 8,000 for four and six -and six-passenger vehicles respectively.
According to him, the Itakpe train station to Warri will be reduced to N5,000.
“From Adavi to Abuja, very similar commitment, there is a provision for the reduction of fares currently as high as N12,000 and N13,000 from Abuja. We are bringing it down to N7,000 for six to eight-passenger vehicles and N8,000 for four-passenger vehicles,” he added.
Oluwagbemi said the agreement stipulates that upon the conversion of 100 NURTW vehicles on the Kogi route by the end of October the agreements become effective.
He insisted that any of the converted vehicles found charging the old fare shall be liable to a refund of the full cost of conversion which is about N1.2 million.
The Federal Government presently converts the vehicles free of charge in its bid to crash transport fares.
The P-CNGI boss said, “Upon conversion of each respective operator after we approach the 100. We also have enforcement here.
“NURTW is committing to enforcing on our behalf, making sure these rates are respected. That if any operator violates these fare price, they will be responsible for reimbursing us for the full installation cost.”
Earlier, he said the fare reduction agreements were also part of the activities marking the 64th independence anniversary.
“The first one we are doing here today is to enable reduction of fare from Abuja to Kogi State, especially the Itakpe, Adavi, and Ajaokuta stations.
“These stations are important stations to convey people from Kogi to Delta state through Edo State.
“That means by the work we are doing here today we are just reducing the fare from N12,000 or N13,000 to N7,000 and N8,000. You can now get to Delta State and Edo State for less than N10,000 or sometimes even N12,000 or N13,000 as far as transportation is concerned.”
According to him, the initiative is leveraging on CNG and train revolution infrastructure of the present administration.
Noting that several companies have been taking advantage of the P-CNGI for gas development, he stressed, that Greenville is commissioning 17 additional refuelling stations across Nigeria before the end of the year.
Bovas, according to him, is commissioning an additional eight between Ibadan, Kwara, Osun, Ekiti, Nassarawa and FCT.
He said in the case of Greenville, they are commissioning most of them in the northern part of Nigeria like Katsina, Kaduna, and Jigawa States.
He said they are also opening up in Lafia, where they developed one about three weeks ago.
Continuing, he said “So 17 in total and equipment is already on ground. In the case of Bovas equipment is already on the ground. They are installed as we speak across Nigeria.
“This week we signed up with Matrix Energy. They are doing five immediately. They are doing it in Oyo, they are doing it in Delta. They will do in Abuja and they will do in Niger State. So as you can see additional investment is going into making sure that this infrastructure is available.
“NNPCL on its part has already done six in Abuja and of course, we visited one of those sites yesterday the one in Gaduwa and we expect that the additional six they are expecting to commission before the end of October in Lagos is also done.”
Responding, NURTW Ajaokuta secretary, Mr. Adeyemi Teslim promised his the union would abide by the agreements once the government keeps its part of the pacts.
He was hopeful the agreements would culminate in fare reduction on the routes.
