The Federal Government has announced plans to attach 300 National Youth Service Corps members to compressed natural gas conversion centres across the country after training and certifying them as CNG technicians.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth Initiatives, Monitoring and Delivery, Dr Titilope Gbadamosi, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the CNG Retrofitting Training Programme for corps members at the NYSC FCT Orientation Camp in Kubwa, Abuja.

The development was contained in a statement posted on the NYSC Facebook page on Wednesday.

Gbadamosi said the programme would be implemented across the six geopolitical zones as part of efforts to position Nigerian youths at the forefront of the country’s transition to compressed natural gas.

She said the initiative was targeted at supporting the retrofitting of 100,000 vehicles annually.

“Following the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2033, compressed natural gas (CNG) emerged as the most viable and affordable alternative for Nigerian motorists and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu set a national target of 100,000 vehicles to be retrofitted annually,” she said.

Gbadamosi added that the National Automotive and Development Council had committed its technical authority, certification standards and full funding to the initiative.

She said, “300 corps members would be trained and certified as technicians and attached to different CNG centres.”

The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said the training would create employment opportunities for corps members and expand their entrepreneurial prospects beyond their service year.

Olawande urged the participants to take advantage of the programme, assuring them that the ministry would continue to support youth empowerment and entrepreneurship.

He also encouraged corps members to embrace cheaper and sustainable energy solutions and complement their academic qualifications with practical skills.

The NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, described the programme as an example of inter-agency collaboration and said the scheme was committed to supporting the Federal Government’s energy transition agenda.

Nafiu said the NYSC had trained more than three million corps members in various skills since 2012.

“The CNG retrofitting training supports the one trillion dollar innovation-driven economy. This carefully selected programme would bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications,” he said.

He added that the NYSC was ready to support Nigeria’s energy transition and build an economy driven by the skills, innovation and enterprise of young Nigerians.