Are Electric Buses Silencing Traditional Campus Cabs in UNILAG?

By Oluwatosin Akpobi, Oni-orisan Blessing Khadijat, Kazeem Sherifat Oluwadamilare, Ajibola Oyindamola Odunayo, Akinpelumi Esther Jumoke, Badmus Damilola Moses 

If you passed through the UNILAG gate three years ago, you would have taken one of the University’s internal cab networks either once or twice. You’d be familiar with the sound of revving engines and the frantic search for “lower denominations” to pay the driver. But walk through those same gates today, and the experience is very different from what you’d naturally expect in a school environment. The University of Lagos is undergoing a change that seems small on the surface, but its impact has had an impressive effect on the outlook of the school as a modern hub of technology.

The slow but progressive shift from traditional fossil-fuel cabs to a sleek fleet of electric buses is more than just a tech upgrade; it is a masterclass in how a community survives what you would rather call an “economic epilepsy” for students. The catalyst for this change was not just a desire to be “green”; it was a response to a survival crisis. When the national fuel subsidy was removed in 2023, the ripple effect hit the school campus like a tidal wave. Overnight, the ₦50 cab fare, a staple of student life for years, surged to ₦200 per trip.

For the average student making four or five hops between the faculty, the library, and the hostel, the math stopped adding up. “People were literally trekking from the gate to Education or Science because they couldn’t justify spending ₦800 a day just on movement,” says one 300-level student who preferred to remain anonymous. It was a period defined by long, exhausting walks under the sun and strained budgets that left little room for food or data.

“Once you identify a problem, instead of going to sleep, you develop innovations,” one of the alumni behind the project said. That spirit led to a strategic partnership between the university administration and two alumni-led powerhouses: Ogata Global Resources and Chart Eco Global Services. Driven by a genuine desire to give back to the system that raised them, these partners launched the electric vehicle (EV) initiative in late 2024. What started as a modest experiment with 10 buses quickly exploded into a fleet of 30 by September 2025. The demand was so high that it became clear: the campus was not just ready for the future; it was desperate for it.

The most celebrated part of this New Economic Reality is not just the lack of noise, but the heavy relief it brought to the student wallet. The standard fare was instantly cut to ₦100, but the real game-changer arrived in December 2025 through a partnership with MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB). Under a groundbreaking subsidy scheme, students pay their ₦100 fare via their digital wallet and receive an instant ₦90 cashback. Suddenly, a cross-campus trip costs a mere ₦10. For a student previously spending ₦800 daily, that cost has dropped to a staggering ₦40. That ₦7,600 saved every month is enough to turn a struggling semester into a manageable one.

Of course, the transition has not been without its growing pains. If you visit the bus stop during peak hours, you will see the primary point of friction: the queues. Because the buses are quieter, cleaner, and virtually free, everyone wants in. However, for many, the wait is a small price to pay for the upgrade in quality. 

Amoke Boluwatife, a 400L student frequenting the route from the school gate to the main campus, puts it plainly: “I will prefer to take the electric buses no matter how long the queue is because it’s faster because it can carry more people at once and I don’t need to squeeze my body or make myself uncomfortable.”

Law student Olajumoke Akinmusere captures the trade-off perfectly: “I prefer the electric buses because they cost almost nothing, but if I’m running late for a 10:00 AM lecture and the queue is long, I’ll still jump in a cab.” Yet, even those occasional cab rides are becoming freer as the digital payment system streamlines the loading process, eliminating the “do you have change?” arguments that used to delay students at the designated bus stops after they alight.

Beyond the immediate cash in students’ pockets, UNILAG is quietly proving a point to the rest of the country. By moving away from petrol, the university is actually measuring its impact on the planet. The initial fleet alone covered over 102,000 kilometres in just six months, preventing nearly 17 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the Lagos atmosphere. By the end of 2026, that reduction is projected to be equivalent to planting over 5,600 trees. As Itunuoluwa Okusami of Chart Eco Global Services pointed out, this is not just a campus project; it is a “proof of concept” for an entire nation grappling with pollution and rising energy costs.

This is about a university that refused to let its students be stranded by a national crisis. As other institutions across Nigeria watch from the sidelines, UNILAG has set a quiet, compelling precedent: the future of transportation is not just electric, it is equitable.