Ogun begins conversion of buses, motorcycles, tricycles to gas, electricity August

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, on Monday, disclosed that the E-mobility and Gas Mobility Programme of the state will take off in the first week of August.

The Governor also said that his administration would take advantage of the newly signed electricity bill that regulates the power sector by establishing a company that would generate and distribute power supply in the Gateway State.

Prince Abiodun spoke when he received participants of the Senior Executive Course 45, Group 1, of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, who came on a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

He said that his administration would, in its second term, focus on the provision of public utilities, which include water and electricity supply.

The e-mobility and gas mobility involves the conversion of mass transit buses from petroleum fuel to gas and motorcycles (Okada) to electric.

The Governor said the topic of the visit; ‘Industrialisation, Climate change and Energy Security in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Prospects,’ aligned with his administration’s transition objectives.

He said, “I am proud to say that in Ogun State, we have put in measures and plans to begin an energy transition plan and we are going to start converting all our state buses to begin to run on CnG; that program has already commenced and we are actually going to launch what we call our our E-mobility and Gas Mobility Programme sometime around the end of this month or first week in August.

“The gas mobility is that which we convert not just our buses to operate on gas, but all mass transit will begin to operate on gas and our E-mobility is a program that will make for all our motorcycles and tricycles to run on electricity. They will be battery-powered. We are going to launch that program either last week of this month or first week of next month.

“We will take the motorcycles from the riders and give them electric powered motorcycles, this program will have a cushion effect on what our masses are currently experiencing and besides that, it will begin a new phase of dispensation of clean energy which speaks to the issue of climate change.”

The Governor also said that Ogun State is planning to generate its own electricity, following the signing of the 2023 Electricity Bill into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 9, which empowers states, companies and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute power.

“We are going to take advantage of the constitutional amendment that has now removed power generation from the exclusive list and put it on the concurrent list.

“We will have our own generation company, state distribution company, and ensure that we can provide more power to our major towns and cities. Once we are able to do that, the grid can be sufficient for our small towns,” he said.

The Governor also disclosed that his government has spent so much on the rehabilitation of water works across the state in its efforts at ensuring the availability of portable water to the populace.

He added, “On the issue of water, we have spent a lot of money on our water works. It will interest you to know that our water works from Ogun River, is what Lagos State depends on.

“We have invested a lot of money in our water works. What we need to do now is to be creative about reticulation and also provide water in all our major towns and cities.

The Governor noted that his administration’s vision on assuming office on May 29, 2019, was to create an enabling environment for Public Private Partnership as well as touching all the critical sectors of the State’s economy through the Infrastructure, Social Wellbeing, Education, Youth Empowerment and Agriculture (ISEYA) mantras.