Transport Fare Reduction Has Already Begun — Pi-CNG Executive Chairman

The reduction in the cost of transportation promised by President Bola Tinubu has already begun, the Executive Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (Pi-CNG), Ismaeel Ahmed, said on Wednesday.

He said there were fewer than 10 CNG stations before 2023, but the number increased to 90 refuelling stations in Nigeria when Tinubu launched the initiative.

He said that the initiative is backed by investors, adding that the job of the Pi-CNG is to create an enabling environment.

Ahmed noted that people had already started using CNGs and electric vehicles.

“What we are going to be seeing, starting tomorrow (October 1, 2026), is hopefully a reduction of transport fares in certain routes,” he said.

“If you jump on a CNG bus today from Gwagwalada to Abuja, you will be paying nothing less than 40 per cent cheaper than what you should be paying.”

Ahmed said that Nigeria has more than 120,000 vehicles converted already while data is still being collated.

“Now, of the 100,000 conversion kits that I announced in March as a result of the instruction given by the President, we are converting those as well; that one has almost finished,” he added.

“We are taking stock of it; people are converting in droves, especially because we are entering new areas that we have not entered before. In the last one year, there was no single CNG station. Now, there are 10 refuelling stations in Kano.”

Jide Fashetire, Founder of City Mechanic, sets up a gas bottle in a minibus to convert it to gas combustion in City Mechanic, a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) center in Lagos, on November 12, 2024. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)

On September 19, 2026, President Tinubu directed states to accelerate the implementation of the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme aimed at delivering measurable reductions in transportation costs to more Nigerians from October 1, 2026.

He disclosed that an implementation committee had been established under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, chaired by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.

In August, the President called for the rollout of an additional 500 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refuelling stations nationwide as part of efforts to reduce transportation costs following the removal of the petrol subsidy.

He said that state governors had agreed to take immediate measures to reduce transport fares in their respective states by leveraging cheaper energy sources, including CNG and electric vehicles.

Tinubu added that the additional stations would bring the Federal Government’s planned CNG refuelling network to 1,000 stations nationwide.

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