‘How CBN’s N250bn fund for autogas policy can work’

Energy experts have urged the federal government to address inherent challenges in the implementation of the N250 billion fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the National Gas Expansion Programme and National Autogas Roll-out Initiative.

Speaking with some journalists in Abuja Wednesday, an Associate Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Habeeb Jaiyeola, said government intervention funds across the world are normally used to catalyse economic development.

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However, he said the payback has to be enforced to ensure the fund remains available for further critical interventions.

Jaiyeola also noted that further sensitization on the autogas initiative would be needed for its acceptability as well as appropriate pricing system.

Another energy expert, Michael Faniran, said one of the imperatives of the auto gas policy remained the need for people to convert their vehicles so that it could use both petrol and gas.

“This is an additional cost to the vehicle owners. As such, the government needs to create incentives aimed at vehicle owners, in the form of loans or tax credits, to offset part or all of the cost of conversion of vehicles and even for retail outlets to build dispensing units for CNG”, Faniran said.

For the private sector to come in, Faniran noted that there must be a very clear enabling policy and the government must have a well thought out and bankable plan to attract the private sector.