Reluctance in CNG Conversion in Nigeria

[nelson]

Reluctance Towards CNG Conversion in Nigeria
Doubtless, the reluctance of CNG conversion to turn out to be a reality in Nigeria is multifaceted. Arguably, CNG is greener, economical, and efficient against conventional fuels such as gasoline and diesel. However, despite accruable benefits from the conversion process and wider diffusion of CNG, such a process and wider diffusion faced various setbacks in Nigeria over recent years. Following are the reasons for the reluctance:

 

Poor Infrastructure
One of the major deterrent factors to the use of CNG in Nigeria is the inadequacy of infrastructure as it concerns fueling stations. The fact of the matter is that CNG requires special refueling stations. Though some have been established in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, this is still very limited. The vehicle owners would find access to CNG rather inconvenient without wide-ranging CNG refueling station coverage, and this acts to discourage conversion.

Insufficient Refueling Facilities: The available CNG, at present, is only available in some selective stations in a few cities, which, in simple language, means large swaths of the country have no refueling facilities.

High Initial Investment: Setting up CNG fueling stations requires huge investment, which is not being made by any private/public stakeholder, Mr. A for example, due to uncertainty over the viability of the market.

 

High Conversion Costs

This conversion from either petrol or diesel involves heavy costs in CNG. Though prices of the CNG systems have come down over some time, conversion into CNG needs vehicle owners to bear the costs of installing expensive CNG cylinders and related equipment. This initial investment is very hard to be afforded by many vehicle owners, particularly in a country where economic conditions are not good.

Cost of Conversion Kits: A conversion kit can be quite expensive, anywhere between ₦300,000 and ₦100,000, pending the type of vehicle and sort of system applied. This is rather appreciable for the ordinary Nigerian.

Inaccessibility of Finance: Besides the problem related to the availability of CNG, there is practically no avenue for financing this process; therefore, it becomes uphill on the part of individual or small-scale businesses to bear such costs.
 

Lack of Public Awareness

However, the advantages that are to be obtained from the use of CNG and how one goes about taking this CNG retrofitting course itself are barely popularized among the large section of the public. A whole lot of Nigerians hardly know what CNG is, let alone some of the very important benefits accruable from the use of the product: cost-saving advantage, ecological friendliness, and general mechanics of CNG-powered vehicles.

There is also a general feeling that CNG vehicles are less strong and less reliable than those that use either of the other two types of fuel, which is not true.
Government and other relevant stakeholders in both the automobile and energy sectors have not been sensitizing the masses as far as the benefits accrued from the use of CNG in the long run are concerned.

 

Government Policies and Support

Although the government of Nigeria has made an effort to propagate the use of CNG as an alternative source of fuel, policies and incentives that are needed for adopting this fuel are incoherent or missing.

Inconsistent policy implementation: Subsidy for CNG vehicles apart, more fueling stations were assured by the Government of Nigeria, and huge gaps exist between policy intention and its execution on many occasions.

Lack of Regulatory Incentives: There are hardly any tax incentives provided or rebated/subsidies granted to consumers for switching over to CNG, and even fewer to firms setting up refueling stations. In the long term, explicit policy support at this level appears lacking, which keeps the volatility in the market.

 

Preference for Imported Vehicles

Most Nigerians would import used vehicles from relatively more developed markets like the US and Europe. These hardly come fitted for CNG, and even retrofitting them to run on CNG is both expensive and cumbersome.

Secondhand Car Market: Most cars in the Nigerian market are second-hand geared for either petrol or diesel. Their costly and cumbersome retrofitting into CNG makes the adoption prospect even unattractive.

Availability of Spare Parts: There is also one more problem, probably connected with the fact that after all, spare parts for already converted CNG vehicles are not available in the Nigerian market. That means long-term maintenance of the vehicles may be not so easy for car owners.

 

Perceived Lack of Convenience

In fact, most people in Nigeria still use both petrol and diesel because both fuels are perceived to be relatively more available and simpler to access compared to the CNG fuel. Besides the limited refueling infrastructure of CNG, which already makes the matters unappealing to it compared to other conventional fuels, finding the CNG station takes extra effort and time, which further aggravates the negative effects.

Inconvenience to Refuel: One finds a petrol station at virtually every street corner. The driver is used to refueling quickly and can usually do so without having to look for a station. In this respect, CNG - with its sparse infrastructure - requires more planning from the driver.

Running-out-of-fuel anxiety: CNG vehicles have generally smaller ranges than those on gasoline or diesel, and hence far away from the refueling station, they could be anxious about running out of fuel.

 

Cultural and Social Factors

Running vehicles on petrol and diesel has been part of the culture, especially in urban cities around Nigeria. To the average man, shifting to CNG might be regarded either as not necessary or too technical.

Generally, Nigerians are conservative, and for most, conventional fuels are considered "normal" or "safe." Other problems which persist as a cause for concern are the Lack of Peer Influence. The use of CNG is not at a level that it gets accepted as a norm for the majority owners of cars today. Inertia keeps them sticking to the familiar, such as Petrol and Diesel.

 

Bottlenecks in Gas Supply and Distribution

With some of the most abundant supplies of natural gas in the world, Nigeria's supply and distribution infrastructure is underdeveloped and can be a relative bottleneck to growth in the CNG marketplace.

Inconsistency of supply of gas : The most important concern that will be raised is the consistency of the supply of natural gas to the CNG stations. With this inconsistency, there may be fluctuation in the supply, hence causing shortage of fuel and thus becoming unreliable to vehicle owners.
Pipeline Infrastructure: The distribution pipeline infrastructure is still in its infancy even within Nigeria, let alone for the most part of the country. This makes this limiting to the expansion of the CNG alternative fuel.

 

Ecological and Health Implications
As a matter of fact, CNG is cleaner than petrol and diesel fuels. Ecologically, however, there are some apprehensions about probable leakage during transportation and storage.

Natural Gas Leaks: Natural gas itself contains methane, which is a very potent greenhouse gas. Poorly controlled leaks in the chain could nullify some of the environmental gains coming from the use of CNG.

Health Impact of Gas Storage: Similarly, safety precautions must be taken during the storage and compression of the natural gas. Any breakdown in the system will pose a health risk to human beings.

 

Competition from Electric Vehicles (EVs)
The rest of the world, except Nigeria, is reaching an inflexion point on electric vehicles. The Nigerian mind may be undiscerning, but CNG can come across as a mere "transition" fuel which will be inevitably overtaken by the more advanced technology of EVs. On ecological balance, electric vehicles are increasingly proclaimed to be the conveyances of mankind for the future; they could easily eclipse CNG in people's perception.

 

Possible Solutions to Overcome Reluctance

Incentives by Government: Subsidy, tax exemption, and availability of finance during conversion to a CNG vehicle would make the alteration more economically viable for the car owners in Nigeria.

Infrastructure Development: It involves increasing the number of CNG refueling stations with gas distribution facilities that would enhance the availability of CNG and its dependability.

Public Awareness Campaigns: The awareness amongst the masses regarding the incentives associated with ecological and monetary benefits associated with CNG will make more people adopt this fuel.

Encouragement for Local CNG Vehicle Manufacturing: By providing incentives to the local people for manufacturing vehicles, which are already at an optimized stage of using CNG. Thus reducing the barrier to entry.

International Partnership: International partnership, as it concerns companies and governments that underwrite and facilitate growth in the CNG market, has to be pursued by Nigeria.

While CNG thus has the potential to address cardinal issues of fuel efficiency, air quality, and environmental sustainability relating to Nigeria, it can also be seen that the reluctance for adoption is for a lot of reasons touching economic, infrastructural, social, and policy factors. Indeed, overcoming it will require an integrated approach from the topmost government machinery to the private sector, down to grassroots levels.

Edited Monday at 08:49 AM by nelson