Lagos govt receives 20 more CNG buses

Lagos State Government says it has received 20 additional high-capacity Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses under the Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicle (EV) Buses.

The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) announced the handover in a post on X on Wednesday, saying the buses would increase public transport capacity in the state and support the transition to cleaner energy.

At the handover ceremony in Lagos, the Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, stated that the buses would improve public transport services on the routes where they are deployed.

He thanked President Bola Tinubu for the initiative and called for more federal support, including additional 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 said.

Mr Osiyemi also urged private investors to explore opportunities in fleet financing and leasing, CNG infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, vehicle maintenance, ticketing, technology and fleet management.

Lagos’ bus shortage

The handover comes amid a longstanding shortage of public transport buses in Lagos.

In March 2025, LAMATA said the state needed about 15,000 buses to move passengers effectively, while its operational fleet was slightly above 1,000 at the time.

The agency also noted that it expected about 500 CNG buses and 50 electric vehicles by the last quarter of 2025.

LAMATA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abimbola Akinajo, said the 20 buses would be deployed on selected corridors to increase service capacity.

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Ms Akinajo stated that Lagos currently had about 150 CNG buses, including 36 allocated to operators under LAMATA’s regulatory framework.

She urged the beneficiary operators to ensure the buses were properly maintained and deployed efficiently.

The Chief Operations Officer of Pi-CNG&EV, Tosin Coker, also urged the operators to maintain the buses properly.

The latest handover comes as the federal government expands its National Affordable CNG Transit Programme. President Tinubu said on 19 September that Lagos was among the states expanding CNG-supported transport services as the government targetted lower transportation costs from 1 October.

Lagos is also restructuring 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 integrate informal transport operators into a more structured system.