By Temitope Ajayi
Finance Minister and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Olawale Edun, has visited the JET Motor Company (JET) Assembly Plant in Lagos, where Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses are being assembled under the Presidential CNG Initiative.
JET, which is located in Lagos, is one of the four assembly plants picked by the PCNGi to assemble semi knocked down components of climate friendly CNG and electric buses and tricycles, which will soon be rolled out to slash transportation costs.
JET also has capacity to convert petrol buses to CNG.
After going round the JET plant on Friday, Edun expressed satisfaction about the progress of work at the assembly.
He said though the PCNGi has taken time to be actualised, the benefits will soon be available to Nigerians.
“I have come to see the CNG buses that Nigerians are asking about. I have seen them. I have tested them and driven them. I have seen them being assembled. The benefits will soon be available to Nigerians”, Edun said.
He said the PCNGi is about mass transit that is affordable.
“Two critical aims will be achieved. Whereas it costs about N55,000 to fill a 15-20 seater buses with petrol, it will cost between N12-15,000 to fill a CNG bus of the same capacity. This is three times, if not four times less. This is a huge savings that will help reduce transport costs and at the same time, help reduce inflation”.
Edun praised JET’s employment of local talents in the assembly of the vehicles.
The chairman and founder of JET, Chidi Ajaere took the minister round during the visit.
Also on hand were the CEO of JET motor company, Engr Derek Ewelukwa and other members of the JET team, such as Sanjay Rupani of the Technical development department and Ebimo Ofongo, the plant manager.
Present also were Tosin Coker, Commercial director PCNGi and Joseph Osanipin, Director General of the National Automotive Development and Design Council.
Ajaere commended President Bola Tinubu for his initiative in promoting local production of the CNG vehicles and the entire PCNGi team’s resolve to make the project a success.
JET was established in 2018 to build Electric Vehicles (EV) vans, pickups and CNG/Petrol buses tailored to meet Nigeria’s unique transportation needs.
The company aims to transition from Semi Knocked down components to completely knocked Down components in the next three to four years.
