President Bola Tinubu has announced plans to bring down transportation costs across Nigeria from October 1 through increased use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric vehicles.
Tinubu announced the plan on Thursday after meeting with state governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where both levels of government agreed to take immediate steps to reduce transport fares.
The president said a joint Federal and State committee would commence work on the initiative immediately, with state governments expected to play a major role in lowering intra-state transportation costs.
“I am pleased with my discussion with the Governors’ Forum this afternoon. The governors have, on their own initiative, resolved to take immediate measures to bring down the cost of transportation in their states, with a strong focus on leveraging the cost benefits of CNG and electric vehicles,” Tinubu said.
He said the Federal Government’s ongoing energy transition programme had already resulted in more than 120,000 vehicles being converted to CNG across the country, while another 100,000 conversion kits were being prepared.
Tinubu added that the government was expanding conversion centres and CNG refuelling facilities as part of efforts to make the alternative fuel more accessible.
According to him, the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund is financing more than 100 gas projects nationwide, including 15 CNG mother stations and 86 daughter stations.
The president also disclosed that he had ordered the establishment of an additional 500 CNG refuelling stations, bringing the total number of stations ordered to 1,000.
Tinubu said the lower operating cost of CNG-powered vehicles should translate into cheaper transportation for Nigerians.
“A vehicle running on CNG spends 60 to 80 per cent less on fuel than one running on petrol,” he said.
“From October 1, our goal is that Nigerians begin to partake in those savings through lower transport fares. We have agreed that cheaper fuel should result in cheaper fares.”
The announcement comes amid renewed debate over the future of fuel subsidies, with former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar advocating a redesigned subsidy model that would support crude supplied to Nigerian refineries rather than subsidising imported petrol.
Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, linked Tinubu’s announcement to the former vice-president’s proposal, describing the president’s plan as a reaction rather than a new policy direction.
Shaibu dismissed the announcement as “panic dressed in presidential grammar,” while arguing that the administration should take more immediate steps to ease the impact of high transportation and food costs.
“CNG is useful, but it cannot become an alibi for three years of economic punishment,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has backed the proposed National Affordable CNG Transit Programme (NACTP), which seeks to reduce transport costs through the deployment of CNG-powered vehicles.
The governors said successful implementation would require state support for vehicle conversions, fleet development and related infrastructure, as well as commitments from transport operators to pass the savings on to commuters.
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, who read the communiqué issued after the governors’ meeting, said high transportation costs had become a major contributor to inflation.
Diri said the governors would collaborate with the private sector to expand the number of CNG-powered vehicles operating across the country.
“Gas is cheaper than petrol, which will actually reduce the costs of transportation,” the governor said.
He added that cheaper transportation could have a wider impact on the economy by reducing costs across other sectors.
However, the governors said the financing arrangements and implementation framework for the NACTP were yet to be finalised and would be developed through further discussions between the NGF and proponents of the programme.
