The Federal Government has begun deploying 100 electric mass transit buses for federal civil servants.
It has also taken delivery of the first batch of electric vehicles (EVs) promised to workers, as part of a broader push to cut transportation costs and promote cleaner energy use across the country.
The first batch of 37 buses was commissioned yesterday at Eagle Square, Abuja, by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, under the Federal Civil Service Electric Mass Transit Programme. The initiative, approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the Renewed Hope Mass Transit Scheme, is meant to provide federal workers with safer, more affordable and reliable transportation along designated routes within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Separately, the Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, who disclosed that the government had taken delivery of the first batch of EVs promised to civil servants, described it as the beginning of a wider rollout under the administration’s clean energy transportation drive.
He spoke while briefing journalists after meeting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House.
Speaking at the bus inauguration, Walson-Jack, described the intervention as central to workers’ welfare and productivity.
‘For many civil servants, the daily commute shapes their finances, their safety, their punctuality and ultimately their productivity,’ she said.
The retiring HoCSF said the launching was a fitting close to her tenure. ‘This commissioning is providentially my parting gift to my dearly beloved federal servants. In a little under 24 hours, my time as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation comes to an end,’ she said, adding that the buses would keep working long after she had left office.
Walson-Jack said the buses were acquired through the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund and linked the programme to other government interventions, including the minimum wage review, the wage award following the fuel subsidy removal, digitalisation of the public service, and reforms in pensions, promotions and health insurance. ‘Each is a thread in the same commitment that reform must be felt, not merely announced,’ she said.
The Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, said the buses programme was an investment in workers’ welfare and local industrial development. He said each bus could carry up to 200 passengers and travel a minimum of 200 kilometres on a full charge, and that the scheme would ease pressure on workers’ household incomes while supporting Nigeria’s automotive sector.
The buses, approved by NADDC, are expected to run on designated routes linking residential corridors with the Federal Secretariat and other government offices in the FCT, with the first deployment serving as a testing phase ahead of a wider rollout.
On the electric vehicle scheme, Osanipin said the government had also deployed EV-related infrastructure in about 16 universities to build the ecosystem needed to support the transition to alternative energy vehicles. He said policies promoting EVs and Compressed Natural Gas required complementary investment in filling stations, mobile refilling units and gas production before their benefits could be fully felt.
He disclosed that the number of companies licensed to retail gas had risen to about 81, from about four previously, citing it as evidence of growing private sector investment in the CNG initiative.
He said the expansion was already cutting costs for motorists and fleet operators, citing a traveller whose fuel expenditure on a trip fell from over N200,000 to about N40,000 after switching to CNG, refilling in Kano.
Osanipin, however, said some fleet operators benefiting from cheaper CNG had yet to pass on the savings to commuters through reduced fares, adding that ensuring this happens would form the next phase of government intervention once infrastructure and fuel availability are sufficiently developed.
He said his meeting with President Tinubu also covered ongoing investments in the automotive sector and progress on draft legislation to strengthen the industry’s regulatory environment