Lagos gets 20 new CNG buses to boost transport

Lagos State Government has received 20 more high-capacity Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses. This is part of the Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicle (EV) Buses.

The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) announced this on X on Wednesday. They said these buses will help increase public transport capacity in Lagos and support the move to cleaner energy.

At the handover event in Lagos, the Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the new buses will improve public transport on the routes they will serve. He thanked President Bola Tinubu for the initiative and asked for more federal support. He specifically mentioned the need for more CNG buses and infrastructure for their operation and maintenance.

“Today, we received buses. Tomorrow, we will build a cleaner future. A cleaner Lagos is a better Lagos,” Mr Osiyemi noted.

Mr Osiyemi also called on private investors to look into areas like fleet financing and leasing, CNG infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, vehicle maintenance, ticketing, technology, and fleet management. This handover happens against the backdrop of a long-standing shortage of public transport buses in Lagos.

In March 2025, LAMATA reported that the state needs about 15,000 buses to effectively move passengers. At that time, the operational fleet was just over 1,000. The agency also mentioned that it expects around 500 CNG buses and 50 electric vehicles by the last quarter of 2025.

LAMATA's Managing Director and CEO, Abimbola Akinajo, said the 20 new buses will be placed on selected routes to boost service capacity. Ms Akinajo shared that Lagos currently has about 150 CNG buses, with 36 of them allocated to operators under LAMATA’s guidelines.

She urged the operators who will benefit from the new buses to ensure they are properly maintained and used effectively. The Chief Operations Officer of Pi-CNG&EV, Tosin Coker, also stressed the need for proper maintenance of the buses.

This latest handover is part of the federal government's effort to grow its National Affordable CNG Transit Programme. President Tinubu mentioned on September 19 that Lagos is one of the states boosting CNG-supported transport services to help lower transport costs starting from October 1.

Lagos is also working on improving its bus transport system through the Bus Industry Transition Programme (BITP). In August, the state government, LAMATA, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) signed an agreement to bring informal transport operators into a more organized system.