Cheaper fuel, costlier hours

• Abuja’s CNG drivers spend two days in queue   From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and Francis Onyedikachukwu, Abuja Before 7am, Sunday Nduka had arrived at a compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling station in Abuja, hoping to fill his vehicle’s tank and begin transporting passengers across the city. By 4pm, he was still in the queue. Nine hours had passed, and the commercial driver was yet to obtain the fuel he had switched to in the hope of escaping the rising cost of petrol and improving his daily earnings.     For a man whose livelihood depends on how many passengers he transports and the fares collected, every hour spent waiting is lost income. While other drivers were picking up passengers, completing trips and returning home with money, Sunday remained stranded in a queue, watching his working day disappear. His frustration was evident as he contemplated what the delay meant for his earnings.   •Ismaeel Ahmed   “If I had bought the CNG since morning, at least I would have made up to 30 trips or more. But if I get it now, I don’t think I’ll be able to make up to 10 trips,” he lamented. For Sunday and many other commercial drivers operating in Nigeria’s capital, the transition to CNG was supposed to offer a lifeline against the rising cost of transportation. The Federal Government introduced its CNG initiative as part of efforts to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal, reduce dependence on expensive petrol, lower transportation costs and promote the use of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources. The initiative was also designed to provide a cheaper alternative fuel for vehicles, ease the financial burden on transport operators and commuters and support a more diversified and sustainable energy mix. For drivers who have converted their vehicles, the savings on fuel are significant. But accessing the alternative fuel has become a struggle of its own. Across Abuja’s CNG refuelling stations, drivers interviewed for this report described spending between five and 10 hours in queues. Some said they had waited overnight, while others recounted experiences of spending as long as 20 hours or even two days without successfully obtaining gas. Their experiences expose an uncomfortable contradiction in Nigeria’s transition to alternative energy: fuel may be cheaper, but what happens when getting it consumes the very hours workers need to earn a living? For Gbenga Ezekiel, a commercial driver who has used CNG for more than a year, switching from petrol was a practical response to the unpredictability of fuel prices. “The situation of the country is that petrol today will go up, tomorrow it comes down, then by the time it will increase, it will just jack up without warning,” he said. Operating along the Berger-Kuje route, Ezekiel said a round trip that previously required approximately N15,000 worth of petrol could be completed with about N5,500 worth of CNG, depending on the pressure and quantity of gas available. The difference, based on his figures, is about N9,500 per round trip, representing a reduction of approximately 63 per cent in fuel expenditure. For a driver whose daily earnings must cover fuel, vehicle maintenance, feeding, school expenses and other household obligations, such savings can make a considerable difference. Ezekiel said the lower cost of gas had improved the money he took home after working. “If you are using petrol, with what I told you, with one trip and you bought fuel of N15,000, you will go back home with N8,000 for the whole day,” he explained. “But if you are using gas, you will go back home with at least N15,000.” His account suggests a potential improvement of about N7,000 in daily take-home earnings, although the actual difference depends on passenger demand, the number of trips completed and other operating expenses. For drivers struggling to make ends meet, that additional money can help meet family responsibilities that might otherwise go unattended. The savings also illustrate the economic rationale behind the Federal Government’s CNG initiative. By making a less expensive fuel available to commercial transport operators, the policy seeks to reduce the impact of higher petrol prices on their operating costs, with the potential for lower fares and improved household incomes. But the savings come with a condition: drivers must first get gas. And that is where the promise of cheaper fuel begins to collide with the realities of earning a living in Abuja. At the NNPC CNG station in Wuse Zone 1, another driver, Onah Victor, said the time required to obtain gas could consume an entire work shift. Victor, a ride-hailing driver who has operated a CNG-powered vehicle for about six months, said motorists sometimes arrived as early as 6am but did not leave until 2pm. “Some of us come here by six in the morning and leave by two,” he said. Eight hours is a full conventional working day. For these drivers, however, it is often only the waiting period before the actual work begins. Victor said queues at some other stations could be shorter, lasting two or three hours, but the waiting time depended largely on gas availability. That uncertainty makes it difficult for drivers to plan their activities. A driver who expects to spend an hour refuelling may find himself stranded for most of the day, unable to predict when he will return to the road. Martin, who switched to CNG about five months ago, described a similar experience. He arrived at a station at approximately 7am and was still waiting at 3.30pm, having spent roughly eight and a half hours in the queue. “If it were fuel, I should be resting by now, hoping that maybe if I come out, I will still buy fuel easily and continue my work,” he said. “But here, I will queue. Maybe probably by the time I get the gas I will be exhausted, and maybe I might decide to just sleep.” His words capture a cost that does not appear on any fuel receipt. A driver may spend less money filling his tank but lose the most productive hours of the day, when he could have transported passengers, pursued private bookings or completed trips for ride-hailing customers. For workers whose earnings depend on keeping their vehicles moving, the queue is more than an inconvenience. It takes directly from their livelihoods. The consequences extend beyond the drivers’ immediate loss of income to passengers who depend on them for timely transportation. Victor recalled an incident involving a client who had arranged an airport trip for the afternoon. He had arrived at the refuelling station at 5am but was still without gas by 11am. Unable to predict when he would leave the station, he eventually informed the client that he could not make the trip. According to Victor, the delay disrupted the client’s plans and contributed to the passenger missing a flight. Martin recounted a similar experience involving a passenger who had booked him for an airport journey. Unable to leave the queue in time, he had to arrange for another person to pick up the client. For both drivers, the problem was not necessarily a shortage of passengers or a lack of willingness to work. It was their inability to guarantee that they could obtain fuel and honour their commitments. The implications can be serious for drivers who depend on repeat customers and private bookings. Reliability is part of the service they provide, and repeated delays can weaken the trust they have built with clients. Other drivers face a different dilemma: whether to abandon the queue and risk losing their place or remain in line while prospective passengers seek alternative transport. Some may eventually obtain gas but have too little time left to complete enough trips to make the day worthwhile. The financial losses are difficult to calculate without detailed records of their daily earnings. But for drivers paid per trip, the relationship between time and income is direct. Every missed journey represents a potential fare that cannot be recovered. Despite the long queues, the drivers interviewed said CNG remained considerably cheaper than petrol. Victor said that when petrol sold for N800 per litre, he spent approximately N210,000 weekly on petrol, equivalent to about N30,000 daily. With CNG, he said, he could fill his vehicle’s two-cylinder setup for a maximum of approximately N12,000 and work for between 10 and 12 hours, depending on his activities. On those figures, the difference in reported fuel expenditure is about N18,000, or 60 per cent, on a comparable refuelling basis. However, the comparison does not establish the actual profit made from operating either fuel system. The outcome depends on how far the vehicle travels, how much fuel it consumes, how long a refill lasts and how much working time is lost obtaining gas. Victor acknowledged the problem of queues but maintained that the lower fuel cost still made CNG worthwhile. “The problem is not even the time,” he said, explaining that the money left after paying for fuel remained his principal consideration. He recalled a period of CNG scarcity when some drivers spent N20,000 on petrol but earned only N18,000 or N22,000 from their work. For a driver who earns N18,000 and spends N20,000 on fuel, the day ends with a deficit even before vehicle maintenance and other expenses are considered. That financial pressure explains why some drivers remain committed to CNG despite the inconvenience. Rahim Muktar, who said he had used the fuel for about four months, reported that his daily expenditure had fallen from approximately N40,000 on petrol to no more than about N9,000 on CNG. Based on his estimates, the difference is about N31,000 daily, representing a reduction of approximately 77.5 per cent in reported fuel expenditure. Yet Muktar said he could spend about seven hours waiting for gas. On some occasions, he had waited as long as 20 hours, while on one occasion he spent two days waiting without obtaining any. The delays, he said, cost him passengers and income while his everyday expenses continued to accumulate. “I can say it is still profitable, but not enough,” he said. “That is not what it’s supposed to be for a human being that is seeking his daily bread.” His assessment captures the distinction between cheaper fuel and a better livelihood. Reducing operating costs does not necessarily translate into financial security when access to the fuel is unpredictable. The experience also raises questions about how effectively the objectives of the Federal Government’s CNG initiative are being realised at the level of everyday transport operations. While cheaper fuel can help cushion drivers against the effects of petrol price increases, inadequate access may limit the policy’s potential to improve productivity and reduce transportation costs. The investment required to convert a vehicle to CNG adds another layer to the drivers’ financial calculations. One driver estimated that installing a CNG system could cost between N750,000 and N1 million, depending on the cylinder and equipment. Martin said he spent almost N800,000 on his conversion. For commercial drivers whose income fluctuates with passenger demand, such expenditure represents a substantial upfront commitment. The lower cost of gas may eventually offset the investment, but the time required to recover it depends on actual savings, vehicle usage, maintenance expenses and income lost while waiting to refuel. Ezekiel said recalibrating a CNG system could cost about N5,000. Victor reported spending N30,000 on one technical problem and another N6,000 on a subsequent repair. Another driver estimated spending approximately N10,000 monthly on spark plug-related problems. These are individual accounts, rather than representative estimates of maintenance costs across all CNG-powered vehicles. Nevertheless, they illustrate why the economic benefits of conversion cannot be assessed by comparing petrol and gas prices alone. The calculation must also include conversion costs, repairs, the frequency of refuelling and the opportunity cost of time spent in queues. For the drivers interviewed, the savings on fuel appear substantial. What remains uncertain is how consistently those savings compensate for the working hours lost to refuelling. The Federal Government’s policy objective of easing the burden of fuel costs on Nigerians therefore depends not only on encouraging motorists to switch but also on ensuring that the supporting infrastructure can meet demand. For commercial drivers, a successful transition must mean more than owning a vehicle that runs on cheaper fuel. It must also mean being able to obtain that fuel without sacrificing a significant part of the day. The drivers believe that inadequate refuelling infrastructure is a major part of the problem. Ezekiel estimated, based on his experience and discussions with other motorists, that Abuja had about 18 CNG stations, with fewer than 10 actively dispensing gas. His estimate was not independently verified. Nevertheless, the drivers repeatedly complained that the number of facilities available to them was insufficient to meet demand. As more motorists convert their vehicles, pressure on existing stations increases. Where gas supplies are interrupted or dispensing capacity is inadequate, queues lengthen and drivers lose more time. Muktar said that during a period when CNG was unavailable for about two weeks, some drivers had little choice but to leave their vehicles idle because petrol was too expensive to offer a viable alternative. The experience highlights the vulnerability of drivers who have invested in a particular fuel system but cannot obtain the fuel consistently. A vehicle may be in good working condition, and passengers may be willing to pay for transportation, yet its owner may be unable to earn because the fuel needed to operate it is unavailable. The drivers are calling for more refuelling stations, reliable gas supplies and greater investment in distribution infrastructure. Some suggested that every local government area should have two or three stations to improve access, while others urged the government to make it easier for private operators to invest in the sector. “If you give them much more licence, empower them, that means you have actually helped a lot of people, families and everything,” Victor said. Martin also called for policies that would encourage more private companies to establish stations, reducing the time motorists spend waiting for gas. Expanding the network could improve access, but additional stations alone may not resolve the problem if gas supplies remain inconsistent. More infrastructure must be supported by dependable supply, adequate dispensing capacity and effective maintenance. The drivers’ accounts do not independently establish the reasons for shortages at individual stations or whether licensing restrictions are the principal obstacle. Those issues require verification from station operators and the relevant authorities. What the interviews establish is that prolonged waits have become a recurring obstacle for the drivers who spoke to this reporter. Despite the challenges, several drivers said they would still choose CNG if given another opportunity. Sunday said the improvement in his financial circumstances had been considerable, claiming that his weekly earnings could now match what he previously earned in a month while working for an organisation. He attributed much of the change to the lower cost of gas and called for the government to expand the network of refuelling stations. Ezekiel also said he would make the switch again, although he might consider an electric vehicle in the future if the opportunity arose. Martin, however, said the benefits were more complicated. While CNG had improved his earnings compared with petrol, the long queues were consuming the time and energy he needed for other activities. “The money is there, better than what you make on fuel,” he said. “But if you look at now, the duration, the time that I spend here, for me, to be frank, it’s almost the same with that of fuel.” He said he had begun considering an electric vehicle as a possible alternative, although the cost of acquiring one remained a major consideration. Their responses reveal a difficult choice. Petrol takes a large share of their earnings, but CNG can take a substantial share of their time. For drivers who have already invested hundreds of thousands of naira in conversion, abandoning the system is not a simple decision. Nor is returning to petrol an attractive option when fuel costs can consume much of their daily revenue. They are therefore left negotiating between two competing pressures: the financial burden of expensive fuel and the economic consequences of spending hours trying to obtain a cheaper alternative. For a commercial driver, time is not an abstract measure. It is another passenger, another fare, another payment towards school fees or household expenses. An eight-hour wait can consume an entire working shift before the day’s actual business begins. A longer delay may leave a driver too exhausted to work after finally obtaining gas. The accounts of Sunday, Victor, Martin, Muktar and Ezekiel are personal testimonies, not a statistical survey of all CNG users in Abuja. They do not establish the average waiting time across the city’s refuelling stations or prove that every driver experiences the same financial outcome. They nevertheless reveal the human cost of an energy transition whose benefits depend not only on affordability but also on accessibility. The Federal Government’s CNG initiative was conceived to help Nigerians cope with the high cost of petrol by making a cheaper alternative available, particularly for transportation. For the drivers interviewed, that objective has delivered some financial relief, but inadequate access threatens to diminish its full value. Their experiences point to the need to assess the initiative not only by the number of vehicles converted or the difference between petrol and gas prices, but also by the reliability of supply, the accessibility of refuelling stations and the effect on the daily earnings of transport operators. For these drivers, CNG has offered a way to reduce fuel expenditure at a time when the cost of petrol threatens their ability to make a living. But conversion expenses, maintenance bills, inconsistent availability and lost working hours continue to shape the value of that decision. The central question is no longer simply whether gas is cheaper than petrol. It is whether drivers can obtain it reliably enough to turn the savings into a more secure livelihood. For Sunday, the answer may depend on how much of the day remains after nine hours of waiting. For Muktar, it may depend on whether the next refill takes seven hours or two days. For Martin, it may determine whether he continues with CNG or begins considering another option. Until access improves, the promise of cheaper fuel will remain qualified by the cost of obtaining it. And somewhere in Abuja, as passengers search for their next ride and commercial drivers watch the hours slip away, another motorist will be waiting in a queue for the gas that was supposed to make his working day more profitable. Tags:

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