Motorists using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Abuja are facing growing difficulties as the number of converted vehicles continues to outpace the refuelling stations, leaving about 70 active auto-gas stations to serve tens of thousands of vehicles nationwide, checks by Daily Trust have shown.
Across Abuja, motorists say they spend hours and, in some cases, sleep overnight in long queues at the few active CNG dispensing stations, while inconsistent product availability has added to their frustration.
A member of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON), Comrade Chiwendo Ogbonna, said the shortage of stations had made CNG use increasingly difficult.
‘As you can see, cars queue from morning till night. Before you are able to get gas, you have to queue for the whole day,’ he said.
Ogbonna said the situation was affecting the earnings of commercial drivers, stressing the need for more CNG stations across Abuja.
‘Every day, more than 100 vehicles are converting from fuel to CNG. But conversion is not where the matter ends. It is about getting the gas,’ he said.
He added that some motorists had been waiting since the previous night for trucks to arrive with supplies.
Another motorist, Chuka Ajibo, attributed the shortage to inadequate investment by government and marketers, saying only a few filling stations had embraced the CNG project.
‘I think the government should encourage more business people to get into it, become interested and invest. There is a ready market for it,’ Ajibo said.
He described the long queues as a waste of man-hours and called for more petroleum marketers to invest in CNG infrastructure.
Similarly, CNG user Chibuzor Evrunobi said unreliable supply and inadequate stations remained major challenges.
‘CNG is not always available. Even when it is available, the cars are more than the stations,’ he said.
Evrunobi said motorists sometimes faced queues of more than 300 or 400 vehicles and alleged that some stations created artificial scarcity.
He also pointed to the high cost of conversion, saying some motorists pay as much as N750,000 for one tank and up to N1.2 million for two 100kg tanks.
Another motorist, Ekene Nwafor, said he had spent about two hours waiting to buy CNG.
‘Availability is something else because day by day, more people are moving from fuel to CNG because of the benefits. The gap between gas and fuel is quite big,’ he said.
He urged the government and private investors to establish more stations and provide additional trucks to meet growing demand.
Musa Barnabas, another motorist, said the lower cost of CNG was one of the major reasons motorists were switching from petrol.
He said gas of N12,000 could be far more economical than spending N80,000 on fuel.
However, former Project Coordinator of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGi), Engineer Michael Oluwagbemi, said the challenges should also be viewed from the perspective of growing investment.
According to him, private-sector investment in CNG has increased significantly, with more companies converting their fleets to gas because it provides a cheaper alternative.
‘The private sector has stepped up. Before I left, we had synthesised investments of over one billion dollars before my two-year tenure elapsed,’ he said.
Oluwagbemi said the Federal Government had provided incentives and infrastructure to support the industry, adding that the private sector, states and local governments now had important roles to play.
National President of the National Compressed Natural Gas Forum (NCNG-Forum), Faruk Abdullahi, said while motorists see the queues as a problem, investors should see them as an opportunity.
‘Fundamentally, it tells potential businesses that there lies an opportunity within the CNG space. There’s an investment opportunity in CNG infrastructure, building CNG stations and whatnot, that someone can grab and make huge money out of,’ he said.
Abdullahi argued that it was not solely the government’s responsibility to establish enough CNG refuelling stations across the country.
‘There are lots of investment opportunities, but without the right coordination and proper interaction between the private and public sectors, we cannot conveniently say that we are moving in the right direction,’ he said.