Car mechanic Adebola Omotosho has to drive 8km across Nigeria’s bustling commercial hub Lagos to fill his tank with compressed natural gas.
He is among the few Nigerians who were early adopters of the alternative fuel, which can still be hard to come by. Nevertheless, Omotosho believes the financial and environmental benefits outweigh the inconvenience of long trips to the fuelling station.
“Even with that, it is still far cheaper. Before now, I spent 75000 naira (about R800) on petrol, but now I spend 12 000 on CNG every week,” he said.
Authorities are pushing CNG as the silver bullet to end Nigeria’s perennial fuel shortages and a fivefold price hike since President Bola Tinubu abolished fuel subsidies in May 2023.
In September 2023, Tinubu established the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) to drive CNG adoption and ease Nigeria into a cleaner energy era.
The Nigerian government first supported CNG-powered vehicles in 2007, but only began promoting their widespread use last year.
The African economic powerhouse is looking to join the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Iran, where millions of vehicles are powered by the alternative fuel.
About 100 000 cars have been converted so far, with more than $200 million already invested, the CEO of the PCNGI, Michael Oluwagbemi, said.
With about 12 million vehicles on Nigerian roads, the government is targeting the conversion of one million commercial vehicles by 2026.
Private car owners will have to bear the hefty cost of conversion.
It currently costs about 1.3 million naira (about R14 000) to convert a four-cylinder car with a 2.4-litre engine to CNG.
With some 129 million Nigerians living in poverty, according to the World Bank, and a soaring cost of living, not many in the country can afford to pay the cost out of pocket.
“The upfront cost of making that conversion is prohibitive to most ... drivers,” said Chidalu Onyenso, the CEO of Earthbond, a company that helps businesses transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.
But Oluwagbemi said salaried workers can access loans to convert their vehicles with a 12-month repayment plan.
To hit its ambitious target, the government has to reckon with the slow speed of conversions and a limited number of CNG fuelling stations.
“In the last six months before the government made it popular, I was able to convert five cars,” Jide Fasetire, a trained technician, said at his workshop in Lagos.
He has now converted 20 vehicles since the government began its CNG campaign, with at least 18 more on his waiting lists. It currently takes at least two days to convert one vehicle.
Officials say 75 new stations are being built across the country for ease of access.
In September and October, a spate of posts on the social media platform X claimed that conversion to CNG was unsafe, with one widely read post calling it a “time bomb”.
An explosion of a CNG-powered car in the southern Edo state and the news of Malaysia walking back its CNG ambitions over safety concerns further fuelled public scepticism.
Officials blamed the explosion on the use of “uncertified, and poorly fabricated CNG cylinders” and vowed stricter compliance measures.
“Safety issues from the proliferation of unlicensed conversion centres pose a grave security risk,” an energy expert, Kelvin Emmanuel, said.
Onyenso argues mass adoption of CNG will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and cut maintenance costs.
However, she warned that CNG adoption should be seen as part of Nigeria’s journey to sustainable energy and not its destination.
Cape Times