FG, firm begin 200 vehicles conversion to CNG
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Federal Government has awarded a contract to Cedric Masters Group, an automotive company, to convert 200 operational vehicles of the Nigerian Customs Service to operate on Compressed Natural Gas within 90 days.
Our correspondent at the conversion plant in the Lekki Area of Lagos observed many customs vehicles.
This is as the Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, Oluwemimo Osanipin, is aggressively preaching the gospel of the movement of the country’s automotive sector from Semi Knocked Down to Completely Knocked Down.
The transition means the country’s automobile sector is moving from merely assembling motor parts to manufacturing and assembling motor parts in Nigeria.
The Director General of NADDC recently visited 12 automotive assembling plants in Lagos during a four-day working trip as part of efforts to encourage local vehicle assemblers to transition to CKD.
The Chief Executive Officer of Cedric Masters, Anselm Ilekuba, told journalists during the DG’s visit to his assembling plant that the government was determined to ensure the industry transmutes from the SKD to the CKD, as well as the actualisation of the CNG initiative.
Ilekuba noted that CNG was the new normal, thanking the President for an initiative well thought out.
He mentioned that the company’s investment was in the expansion of the CNG distribution network.
He said, “We must thank Mr President for his great initiative. We are lucky to witness this new development. CNG is good for Nigeria and we are fortunate to be among the first to take advantage of this clear opportunity.
“For CNG, I have been trained in Texas and with some of the expatriates who joined us, we have started transferring that knowledge to our people because it is one of the core areas where employment and new businesses will spring up.
“We have acquired land behind this place together with a partner to take advantage of the CNG piping that is coming from Chevron. That will give us cheaper energy for electricity generation. So the investment we are making is in the reticulation of the CNG. We are really taking advantage of the CNG.
Today, one of the major Federal Government agencies has also called upon us with a 90-day ultimatum to convert their vehicles to CNG.”
According to Ilekuba, during the last executive council meeting, an announcement was made about the 200 vehicles.
“So the visit of the NADDC to us today is to encourage us and we assure them that we are doing the right thing, he stated.
He added that the company had been able to meet the 18-month deadline given to the Lagos branch of the company to start rolling out assembled cars.
“We are into automotive and the manufacturing of component parts. We manufacture component parts from our factory in the South-East and for convenience and business expansion, we have an assembly plant here in Lagos.
“We got a licence from the NADDC last year with the mandate that we must within 18 months start rolling out vehicles and I am happy that they have come today to see how far we have gone as well as the physical infrastructure, cable laying and others,” Ilekuba noted.
On his part, The NADDC DG expressed satisfaction with the preparedness and action plans of plant owners to swiftly change to CKD.
He explained that the eventual conversion to CKD would boost employment opportunities in the country and improve the standard of the economy.
Osanipin, who agreed that the change would be challenging, expressed pleasure in the car assemblers’ embracement of the development in the automotive sector.
His words, “We all know the advantages of moving from SKD to CKD. Primarily, this will increase the percentage of our local content and by this, we will generate more employment as well as affect the economy positively, which is why we are seriously pushing for the movement to CKD.
“Meanwhile, I am happy because all the assemblers that we have spoken to embraced the new quest to develop. They welcomed the movement to SKD and they are pushing for it.
“But we all agree that the journey will be challenging because that will require the production of component parts and that is why we need to seriously start attracting more component parts manufacturers into the system.”
According to Osanipin, the country can’t manufacture a vehicle if it can’t manufacture its components.
“The major difference between the SKD and the CKD is just the component and this is why our stakeholders are also embracing the CNG initiative. Many of our assemblers are already converting PMS-powered vehicles to CNG-powered vehicles. It is a teething stage, but we are moving very fast and at that pace, it shows that we will get there sooner than we planned.
“By the time we have more of CNGs on our roads, the investment will go not only into the conversion process, procurement of these vehicles, but even the infrastructure will require more investment,” he explained.
NADDC boss added, “We have discovered that our assemblers are not taking training for granted at all. Many of them have training as a department. They brought in experts who are training our youths, Nigerians, in the act of building vehicles, converting to CNG and among others. All these we saw during our facility tour.”
He expressed joy in the development, stating that once the conversion was completed, more citizens would be pleased with the progress and promptly convert their cars.
“I am so happy for the conversion of all these vehicles because, by the time they are completed and delivered, more people will ask where it is done and do the same. That is what we want as well as the way to go,” he averred.
