Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has hailed the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) for championing the course of green energy introduced by the federal government following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu.
He made the remarks when he received the National Executive Committee of IPMAN in his office in Abuja yesterday on a courtesy visit.
The minister said the federal government aimed to bring down the cost of transportation by over 50 per cent through the CNG Initiative.
Idris noted in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy, “of course it was expected that the price of petrol will go up, which would in turn affect the transportation cost for Nigerians commuting to their various places of work.
“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 percent, and I am happy that IPMAN is in the forefront in this vanguard of achieving the CNG Initiative.”
Idris said President Tinubu’s bold move to remove the fuel subsidy had presented a unique opportunity for organizations like IPMAN to take the lead in shaping the energy landscape of Nigeria.
The minister said Nigeria as a country has been looking for alternative ways of bringing down the cost of transportation and the CNG was the surest way to go.
Idris said already, the federal government, in the first instance, has set aside N100 billion for the purchase of CNG buses and the establishment of CNG centres across the country. 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.
He pledged to give more visibility to the in-house curated programme of the association tagged: ‘IPMAN Today’, on the various public information agencies under his ministry.
Idris also promised to utilise the 30,000 member structure of IPMAN in the implementation of the value re-orientation programmes encapsulated in the National Value Charter.
In his remarks, the President of IPMAN, Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi Shettima, pledged the unalloyed support of the association to the CNG Initiative and promised to complement the government in the green energy programme, which will give a boost to the realization of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the president.
He decried how prices of petroleum products were constantly being manipulated through the spread of fake news and sought the support of the ministry to combat the menace.
