The Federal Government of Nigeria said it is working towards reducing the cost of transportation by over 50 per cent.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said this when he received the National Executive Committee of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, at his office on Thursday.

Idris said the Federal Government aims to bring down the cost of transportation by over 50 per cent through the CNG Initiative.

“In the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy, of course, it was expected that the price of PMS would go up. This will in turn affect the transportation costs for Nigerians going to and fro their various places of work,” he said.

“The Federal Government immediately thought it wise, in addition to other measures, to introduce the CNG. The CNG is expected to bring down the cost of transportation by more than 50 per cent and I am happy that IPMAN is in the forefront in this vanguard of achieving the CNG Initiative,” he said.

The minister said President Tinubu’s bold move to remove the fuel subsidy has presented a unique opportunity for organisations like IPMAN to take the lead in shaping the energy landscape in Nigeria.

He said Nigeria as a nation has been looking for alternative ways of bringing down the cost of transportation, and the CNG is the surest way to go.

“You would recall that the Federal Government, in the first instance, set aside N100 billion for the purchase of CNG buses and the establishment of CNG centres around the country,” he said.

This he said, was in addition to the introduction of tax waivers for the importers of CNG kits as well as other investors in the sub-sector.