Car Owners Will Pay About N250,000 For Autogas Conversion, Sylva Contradicts Kyari

Car owners will pay about N250,000 to have their vehicles converted to run on gas, contrary to information earlier given by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari.

Kyari had on Tuesday said one million cars would be powered by autogas free of charge.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, Justice Derefaka, Technical Adviser, Gas Business and Policy Implementation to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, explained that vehicle owners would have different payment plans to convert their cars to autogas.

“The conversion of your vehicle is not something that will take three weeks or seven days; it will take you around seven to eight hours because they [technicians] need to make a diagnosis of your vehicle to see if it is fit for conversion. After that, they will test for roadworthiness and then proceed.”

When asked who bears the cost for the conversion of the vehicles, Derefaka said, “Who owns the car? The owner of the car basically will decide to say I want to run on autogas or CNG or LNG. As the honourable minister had mentioned before, conversion has basic strands. You can partner with your bank, and the bank will now agree with the conversion centre to convert your vehicle, not for free entirely.

“The installer will now put some form of mechanism that each time you buy the gas, a certain amount will be deducted to pay for the conversion kit. Some people will say it is too expensive, but I don’t think it is because, within a period of five to seven months, you’ve already paid off the cost.”