Motorists in Abuja were seen spending entire days stuck in queues to fill their tanks – and get their hands on cheaper fuel. According to Viory News Agency, footage filmed on Monday shows long lines of vehicles outside a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station – championed by President Bola…...
Motorists in Abuja were seen spending entire days stuck in queues to fill their tanks – and get their hands on cheaper fuel.
According to Viory News Agency, footage filmed on Monday shows long lines of vehicles outside a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station – championed by President Bola Tinubu’s government as a cheaper alternative to petrol.
“Sometimes when you stay here for the whole day, you end up in the evening. You get tired. You cannot even have anything to do because you spend your whole day buying gas,” a taxi driver said.
The government claims switching to CNG can cut fuel costs by 40 to 60 per cent per kilometre compared with petrol. More than 120,000 vehicles have already been converted to CNG, but government figures show there are just over 90 operational refuelling stations across the entire country.
READ MORE: No Plans to Increase Electricity Tariffs, Says Power Minister Tegbe
“The government have brought a very good initiative by bringing CNG. But the issue still remains that the filling stations, they are far, far, far from enough,” a motorist complained.
Read Also
And one energy expert says Nigeria could be wasting a fortune by pumping its valuable gas into cars instead of using it to make industrial products.
“Any gas today that you divert into CNG is a waste of resources because you can use that gas in petrochemicals to make a thousand times the money you are burning away,” said energy expert Dan Kunle.
Tinubu’s government launched the CNG programme after scrapping petrol subsidies in 2023, sending pump prices soaring and leaving millions of Nigerians facing bigger fuel bills.
Nigeria is sitting on Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, estimated at more than 215 trillion cubic feet, yet drivers are still struggling to find somewhere to fill up.
The government insists help is on the way, with another 180 CNG stations under development.
But that is little comfort to Abuja’s drivers, who are discovering that cheaper fuel can come with a hefty price tag in lost working hours.