As petrol prices soar, electric bikes gain ground in Nigeria

On a weekday morning in Pantami District, Gombe, the streets fill with the familiar rush of motorcycles carrying students, workers and traders across the city. Increasingly, some pass almost silently — one pedestrian did not realise an electric motorcycle was behind him until the rider sounded the horn. No exhaust fumes, near-silent running: a subtle sign of a transport shift driven not by climate policy, but by Nigeria's soaring fuel prices.

The shift traces back to President Bola Tinubu's removal of Nigeria's petrol subsidy in May 2023. Petrol in Gombe now sells for about 1,365 naira per litre, compared with roughly 200 naira before the removal — forcing riders who earn their living on two wheels to rethink how they travel.

The maths is what converts riders. Electric motorcycles typically cost about 1 million naira (around $735) — out of reach for many households — but those who switched report significant savings on fuel and maintenance, with one rider estimating savings of about 5,000 naira a week in fuel alone.

The grid is the bottleneck

The biggest obstacle is the one every Nigerian knows: unreliable electricity. Many households receive only a few hours of power a day, which makes home charging a fragile proposition — and has some operators arguing that solar-powered battery-swap stations, not home chargers, are the realistic path for electric two-wheelers.

There are warnings to heed early too: calls to plan for battery recycling, cut import duties on electric-bike components, support swap operators, and fold electric mobility into existing solar mini-grid projects — the unglamorous policy work that decides whether a promising start becomes a real transition.

For now, electric motorcycles remain niche in Gombe. But with fuel prices high and swap infrastructure slowly expanding, the quiet bikes on its streets may be an early glimpse of economic pressure reshaping transport across Nigeria — from Lagos and Kano to Port Harcourt, where riders already flag alarming air pollution from petrol bikes.