President Bola Tinubu said on Thursday, 27 August 2026, that Nigeria’s state governors had agreed, on their own initiative, to cut transport costs, and that a joint federal and state committee would be formed at once so cheaper compressed natural gas becomes cheaper transport fares from 1 October 2026.
Mr Tinubu set out the pledge in a personal statement after talks that afternoon with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum in Abuja.
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The President said governors would use the lower running cost of CNG and electric vehicles to bring down fares in their states.
“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,” Mr Tinubu said.
The Federal Government, he added, is already putting money into the switch through the Presidential CNG Initiative.
More than 120,000 vehicles have been converted nationwide, with more than 100,000 extra conversion kits on the way, while conversion centres and refuelling points continue to spread.
The Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund is financing more than 100 gas projects, including 15 CNG mother stations and 86 daughter stations. Mr Tinubu recalled inaugurating four of those projects in Lagos, Abuja and Owerri in May.
The Lagos package included a 15-station refuelling network. The Abuja site can serve 1,000 cars and tricycles and 50 trucks and buses a day.
He has now ordered another 500 CNG stations on top of 500 already commissioned by the Fund this year, taking the programme to 1,000 stations.
Intra-state travel, the President argued, is where families feel high fuel prices first and where states have the strongest regulatory hold.
“A vehicle running on CNG spends 60 to 80 per cent less on fuel than one running on petrol. 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,” he said.
The announcement follows a firm warning earlier in the week that savings from conversion should reach passengers.
National Automotive Design and Development Council Director-General Joseph Osanipin told reporters on Wednesday, after seeing Mr Tinubu at Aso Rock, that licensed CNG retail firms had risen from four to 81. Fleet operators, he said, were still resisting lower fares.
The Governors’ Forum had already backed a proposed National Affordable CNG Transit Programme in a communiqué from its third meeting, which ran from Wednesday night into Thursday.
Forum Chairman and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq signed the text. Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri read it.
The programme is meant to be state-led with private partners, supporting conversions, fleets and infrastructure in return for fare cuts.
The governors said the financing and implementation plan still needed more work and gave no separate start date beyond the President’s 1 October target.
Mr Diri tied the push to the wider cost of living after the 2023 petrol subsidy removal, which drove up fuel, fares and food. “Transportation is key. Transportation is key to several other factors,” he said.
Higher haulage costs, he added, show up in the price of yam and garri. Cheaper CNG transport, in his view, would have a multiplier effect.
Asked about calls to restore the subsidy, Mr Diri said the Forum’s answer was this practical transport plan, not a policy reversal.
He rejected claims that states had failed to account for extra funds after subsidy removal, then said that argument could wait.
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Whether cheaper transport fares arrive on 1 October will depend on that joint committee, on operators who have so far held on to the savings, and on whether 1,000 stations and tens of thousands of converted vehicles are ready where commuters actually board.
