CNG: Ax Gas offers affordable car conversion

The Chief Executive Officer of Ax Gas, Andre Bassey, says Nigerians can now convert their petrol-powered cars to run on Compressed Natural Gas at affordable rates.

Contrary to the widespread belief that the cost of CNG auto conversion is beyond the power of an average Nigerian, Bassey said people can convert their cars without spending much.

He said car owners do not need millions to get their vehicles converted to CNG.

Bassey explained in an interview at the company’s conversion centre in Lekki, Lagos: “For example, for cars in the class of a Toyota Corolla, it’s quite cheap. The payment comes in plans, so you don’t have to pay at once. You can actually pay between N200,000 and N300,000 to convert a car.

“But then again, you can decide to spread your payment if you are a salary earner: you don’t necessarily have to bring in all the N300,000 at once. You could pay in an instalment of maybe two or three times.”

However, Bassey said individuals with bigger SUVs may spend more for CNG conversion because of the capacity of their engines.

The gas investor appealed to the Federal Government to assist investors in creating CNG daughter stations to give converted cars easy access to cheaper fuel.

He continued, “One of the challenges we have, and we want the government to support us on, is in the area of daughter stations, that is, the CNG refilling stations where you can buy CNG when you run out of it.

“Many are trying to build those infrastructures. We want to build daughter stations so that when you convert your car, you can easily see stations on the road and refill. So, we are asking the government to support investors because these things are not cheap. They are costly and capital-intensive.

“The government can assist us with subsidised access to funding, where we can get funding, maybe directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria or through the World Bank. The interest is there; Nigerians want to convert their cars, and it is not fair if you convert your car and you have to start struggling to refill. That is not encouraging at all,” he said.