Abuja, Nigeria
Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, minister of state for labour and employment, says the federal government would soon roll out 11,500 vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG).
Onyejeocha disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while reacting to the 14-day strike notice issued by the organised labour.
The minister said the agreements reached with the unions last year would take time to implement.
“These agreements, all of them are not going to be done the same day. Some can’t be done in two, three or four months. Like the CNG, it is a process that’s ongoing, and I’ve just told Nigerians what the CNG group has been doing in the last four months,” she said.
“We’ve commenced deliveries on those agreements. We’ve been reaching out to the organised labour because the President is committed to these agreements, he has good faith, that’s why we don’t want anybody to shut down the economy at any time because it will affect everybody.
“It’s like you want to pull down the whole roof of a house, meanwhile, you’re still inside the roof. We’re not shying away from implementing the agreements we’ve entered with the organised labour.”
According to the minister, the federal government through the Ministry of Finance had procured up to 11,500 CNG vehicles, including buses and tricycles, which would be rolled out by President Bola Tinubu soon.
“In line with the government ongoing commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerians, provisions have also been made for an initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits as part of the commencement of the auto gas conversion programme.
“Development of the state-of-the-art CNG conversion centres nationwide is also ongoing with the aim to deliver 1 million converted bi-fuel CNG/PMS vehicles to enable transporters and mass transit operators to convert their vehicles that run on PMS to gas (which is forty to fifty per cent cheaper than PMS),” she added.
