ABUJA — Tens of thousands of vehicles across Nigeria have been converted from petrol to gas or electric power over the past year, as the country attempts to build a state-backed alternative energy network.
Marking twelve months since his appointment by President Bola Tinubu, the Executive Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles (Pi-CNG & EV), Ismaeel Ahmed, released a progress report detailing a foundational shift in the national transport sector.
The initiative was launched as part of emergency measures to lower soaring transport costs for families and businesses following the removal of Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar state fuel subsidies.
‘Convert now, pay later’
A central pillar of the initiative’s first year has been overcoming the high initial costs associated with transitioning fossil-fuel cars into gas-powered vehicles.
To accelerate the transition, the agency launched a “100,000 Conversion Kit Programme” alongside a flexible financing scheme dubbed “Convert Now, Pay Small Small.” The micro-payment initiative allows commercial drivers and everyday motorists to spread out the cost of vehicle conversion over several months.
“The foundation has been laid,” Mr. Ahmed said in a statement. “We will continue to build a transport energy ecosystem that delivers lasting value to our country and real relief to the Nigerian people.”
The Northern Corridor expansion
Following an expanded mandate from the presidency to incorporate electric vehicles into the state’s rollout plans, the agency successfully commissioned the “Northern Corridor” clean energy transport network.
The initial infrastructure deployment in the northern commercial hub of Kano included:
- 40 compressed natural gas (CNG) mass-transit buses
- 7 fully electric buses
- More than 200 CNG-powered tricycles
The initiative has also established functional gas refuelling and Liquefied Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) stations in several key regional cities, including Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Kaduna, and Owerri. Officials say these locations will serve as the geographic anchor points for a wider national rollout of electric vehicle charging grids.
The agency announced its roadmap for the next twelve months will shift focus toward attracting larger private equity investments into the domestic assembly of clean-energy vehicles and aggressively expanding public charging networks nationwide.
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