Lagos State has received 20 high-capacity Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses as the Federal Government steps up efforts to reduce public transportation costs across the country.
The buses were delivered to the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The buses, including units made by IVM and TATA, were handed over at LAMATA’s headquarters in Lagos.
The development came one day before the Federal Government’s October 1 target for Nigerians to begin seeing reductions in public transport fares through the increased use of CNG and electric buses.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, LAMATA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abimbola Akinajo, said the buses would help improve public transportation in Lagos.
She said the additional buses would provide more capacity, improve reliability and help connect communities across the state.
Akinajo also urged the operators receiving the buses to ensure that they are properly deployed and maintained.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the high-capacity buses would allow more passengers to be transported with fewer vehicles. He added that the buses could also help reduce waiting times on routes where they are deployed.
The Chief Operations Officer of the Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicles, Tosin Coker, said Lagos remained important to Nigeria’s transition to cleaner energy in public transportation. He urged operators to maintain the buses properly to ensure they continue to serve commuters effectively.
The 20 new buses bring the number of CNG buses operating within Lagos’ regulated public transport system to about 170.
Akinajo said the new buses would be deployed to routes with high passenger demand, particularly the Ikorodu to TBS corridor.
Lagos introduced CNG buses into its regulated transport system in 2024 as part of efforts to reduce dependence on petrol and diesel and lower the cost of operating public transportation.
Akinajo said the lower operating cost of CNG and electric buses had helped LAMATA keep fares within the regulated system from rising despite the increase in diesel prices.
According to her, diesel, which sold for about N950 per litre at the beginning of the year, now costs between N1,950 and N2,100 per litre.
She said the use of CNG and electric buses had helped LAMATA manage the higher operating costs without transferring the full burden to commuters through higher fares.
The Lagos State Transport Policy targets having 52 per cent of buses in the Bus Rapid Transit system powered by clean energy by 2050.
The delivery of the buses comes as the Federal Government pushes states to use CNG and electric vehicles to reduce transportation costs.
President Bola Tinubu had said state governors agreed under the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to take steps to reduce transport fares by taking advantage of the lower operating costs of CNG and electric vehicles.
Tinubu has also cited savings recorded from the use of CNG-powered public transportation in different states. He said 100 CNG buses in Kaduna transported about 3.2 million passengers during their first year of operation and saved commuters more than N3.5 billion. He also mentioned fare reductions linked to CNG and alternative-energy transportation in Oyo, Enugu, Plateau, Abuja, Niger and Abia.
The Federal Government is also expanding CNG infrastructure across the country.
The Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund is financing more than 100 gas projects, including 15 CNG mother stations and 86 daughter stations.
The government plans to add another 500 CNG refuelling stations to the 500 already ordered, bringing the planned nationwide total to 1,000 stations.
The Federal Government had also set a target of converting one million commercial petrol vehicles to CNG by 2027. Data from the Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicles shows that about 120,000 vehicles have so far been converted.
The CNG initiative was introduced in 2023 following the removal of the petrol subsidy, with the government promoting CNG as a cheaper and cleaner alternative for transportation.