The Federal Government has come under fresh scrutiny over its handling of the ₦100 billion allocated to the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, with questions mounting about whether the promised buses and infrastructure have materialised three years after fuel subsidy removal.
Video footage circulating on social media shows commuters boarding CNG-powered buses on select routes, with on-screen graphics questioning the value of the investment. One calculation suggests that if ₦33 million were spent per bus, the entire ₦100 billion would only account for 655 vehicles—far short of the thousands promised under the programme.
Brandspur Politics understands that official government figures indicate over 120,000 vehicles have been converted to CNG nationwide, with more than 400 certified conversion centres and over 90 refuelling stations established since the initiative launched in 2023.
Spending records compiled from federal disbursement data show that approximately ₦76.3 billion moved through the Ministry of Finance and other agencies between November 2023 and June 2026 for buses, tricycles, conversion kits, and related contracts. The single largest recipient was Jet Systems Automobile Industries, which received roughly ₦18.5 billion for supplying bi-fuel buses, including a batch of 500 vehicles for Lagos and a follow-on order of 374 more.
A further ₦4.9 billion—about 6.5 per cent of the total—went to withholding tax, VAT, and stamp duty, money that never translated into physical assets. In one notable outlay, ₦57.6 million was spent in a single week in May 2024 on newspaper advertisements and television coverage for a conversion centre commissioning in Abuja.
The operational reality on the ground tells a more complicated story. Visits to CNG stations across Abuja, Lagos, and Kano reveal long queues, with some motorists reporting waits of up to eight hours at facilities that open hours behind schedule. At a station near Next Cash & Carry in Abuja, an attendant disclosed that CNG had not been sold in three months due to a faulty compression machine.
Industry stakeholders point to a structural gap. Luqman Mamudu, managing partner at Transtech Industrial Consulting Nigeria, noted that Nigeria’s petrol filling station network is vast and well-established, while CNG infrastructure remains limited and conversion costs still relatively high despite subsidies. Jide Pratt, country manager for Tradegrid, observed that gas gains have yet to reach the pump because “you can’t use gas where it’s not piped”.
The ₦100 billion allocation, originally seeded under the palliative programme, was designed to catalyse an auto-gas revolution covering over 11,500 CNG and electric vehicles and 55,000 conversion kits. Three years later, the programme has reached roughly 12 per cent of its one-million-vehicle conversion target, according to industry assessments.
For ordinary Nigerians, the stakes are tangible. Between 2023 and 2025, households spent an estimated ₦58.6 trillion on petrol following subsidy removal, a burden that the CNG initiative was meant to alleviate. While states like Kaduna, Enugu, and Borno have reported fare reductions through CNG bus deployments, adoption by federal ministries and state governments remains sluggish, with many public institutions still procuring petrol-powered vehicles.
The Presidency has maintained that savings from cheaper energy will reach Nigerians through lower fares, setting an October 1 target for measurable reductions. Whether the ₦100 billion already spent will deliver the nationwide network promised remains the question Nigerians are asking.
