In line with it’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the Federal government on Wednesday flagged of training program of 50 Nigerian Youth on Federal Institute of Industrial Research, FIIRO Auto Gas conversion of Vehicles and generators in Abuja.
The training programme is aimed at training people that will train others in the conversion of PMS to CNG vehicles and generators.
The scheme, according to the agency was in fulfilment of President Tinubu’s promise to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal in May last year.
Flagging of the program, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji said the scheme was initiated to reduce the suffering of Nigerians occasioned by the sudden removal.of fuel subsidy by the President.
“We are doing this today as part of the day’s celebration of President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office, because of great innovations that have been going on in the country.
“With the removal of fuel subsidy, you can see this conversion of PMS to CNG is what we are gaining. What we are doing today here is the training, training the trainees. We are training people that will train others in the conversion of PMS to CNG. And they have done it before in FIIRO.
“And during that period, part of what we did was that they converted one Toyota Corolla from PMS to CNG. And then there was another Corolla that was PMS. So we set two of them to a battle.
While it took the CNG vehicle about 11,000 to get to Ibadan, it took the PMS about 65,000 Naira to get to Ibadan.
“So you can see this is the palliative, the kind of palliative we are looking at.
The cost of transportation, even foodstuffs and everything, logistics, we are trying to reduce it.”
With the full implemention of the project, the Minister assured that everybody will start smiling because the cost of everything will start going down.
On the direction the training is going to take, he explained that after the three-day training on conversion of fuel to CNG, FIIRO would take the trainees to the six geo-political zones of the country for expansion and wider reach of the services.
“As you can see inside, there are some of the materials for the conversion that are already there. They will train the 50 people we have today in the different zone. So today we have done the one just to showcase to the people that this is possible.
“You don’t need to even go to any body or any mechanic to convert for you. That is what we mean by training the trainees. So that is what we are doing in the different zones today.
“Well, as usual, they will go out and start training others. And start making their little, little money. This is creating jobs. It is part of job creation. So they will make their small money. The people they train will train others and make their small money. So it is a circle.”
Earlier in her address, the Director General of FIIRO, Dr. Jumamai Tutuwa explained that the training program was spurred by the first position the agency took at the last Technology Expo held in March this year, during which she promised that FIIRO has the capacity to train 20,000 youth on how to convert a PMS vehicle to CNG.
“This launching came as a result of the first position we got during the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology Expo in March 2024. And we thought it wise, because it’s not everybody that will have money to go and learn how to convert the petrol vehicle to CNG.
“So what we promised that day was that FIIRO has the capacity to train 20,000 youth on how to convert a PMS vehicle to CNG. So we started with Abuja here, and you know that we have well-equipped zonal offices in the six geopolitical zones.
” And using those our zonal offices, we are going to train all, in fact we will go around the 36 states and make sure people use it as their means of financial promotion.
“We all know that when our president removed the fuel subsidy, everybody started crying. But this CNG, frankly speaking, is going to bring down the suffering of most of Nigerians, because even transportation of food items escalated as a result of high price of petrol.
Apart from being cost-effective, the DG said no risk awaits potential users of the CNG converted vehicles and generators across the country.
“There is no consequences. The issue is that the container of CNG is very, very strong. You can throw it from upscale down, it will not break. And if there is accident the gas will just evaporate,” she said.
