Ranked DataTransport fares · May 2026
What moving around Nigeria costs, by the official numbers.
Every month the National Bureau of Statistics surveys what Nigerians pay for bus rides, okada drops, waterway crossings and flights, and publishes the Transport Fare Watch. Ranked transcribes the NBS figures, rounded to two decimals,. The fares below, and every percentage beside them, are the NBS’s own numbers from the May 2026 release. Values are rounded to two decimals for display.
Source: the NBS Transport Fare Watch (May 2026) (publication date not stated; available from the NBS National Data Archive) · every figure verified against the official NBS tables on 8 September 2026
The short answer
Per the NBS Transport Fare Watch for May 2026, the national average bus fare within the city (per drop) was ₦1,431.25 , up 38.63% on a year earlier by the NBS’s own count. An intercity bus journey averaged ₦9,699.55 per passenger, and the average air fare on the NBS’s specified routes was ₦157,552.19 for a single journey.
Bus, intra-city (per drop)
₦1,431.25
+2.43% vs April
Bus, intercity (per passenger)
₦9,699.55
+0.96% vs April
Air fare (single journey)
₦157,552.19
+0.12% vs April
City bus fare vs May 2025
+38.63%
year-on-year
National average fares · May 2026
Source table values, displayed to two decimal places. “MoM” and “YoY” are the NBS’s own month-on-month (vs April 2026) and year-on-year (vs May 2025) percentage changes. Not our arithmetic. A blank cell means we have not verified that cell against the official file, so we do not print it.
| Fare category | Avg fare (May 2026) | MoM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus journey within the city (per drop) | ₦1,431.25 | +2.43% | +38.63% |
| Bus journey intercity (state route, per passenger) | ₦9,699.55 | +0.96% | +21.89% |
| Air fare (specified routes, single journey) | ₦157,552.19 | +0.12% | +20.86% |
| Motorcycle (okada, per drop) | ₦1,072.51 | Not available | +52.45% |
| Water transport (waterway passenger) | ₦2,276.48 | Not available | +30.88% |
Rising fares are shown red. In naira terms the NBS series reads: intra-city bus ₦1,397.27 in April 2026 and ₦1,032.46 in May 2025; intercity bus ₦9,607.41 and ₦7,957.41; air fare ₦157,355.87 and ₦130,361.85. All are published by the NBS.
Methodology
The numbers, defined
- National average fare
- The NBS surveys transport fares across Nigerian states each month and publishes national averages per fare category, with breakdowns for the six geopolitical zones and a state-level sheet. The figures on this page are those published national averages, transcribed from the official XLSX tables in the May 2026 release ZIP.
- “Air fare (specified routes, single journey)”
- The NBS’s label, kept deliberately: it is the national average across the specified routes the bureau tracks, not the price of any particular route or airline. A Lagos to Abuja ticket on a given day can sit well above or below it.
- Why your route may differ
- A national average flattens wide state and route spread. fares differ by distance, road condition, fuel price and demand. Use these figures as a benchmark, not a price list. For actual operators and terminals near you, see Ranked’s directory of bus stations and transport companies.
- What Ranked does not do
- Ranked republishes NBS figures with display rounding and links the primary release. We do not survey fares ourselves, and where we have not verified a cell against the official file (the month-on-month change for okada and water transport above), we print a dash rather than compute one.
This page retains the May 2026 edition, checked against the original workbook on 8 September 2026. The source archive does not state an edition-specific publication date. A retrieval date does not make the figures current. See also the petrol price tracker , and see what the food on the other end of the journey costs in food prices.
Sources and measurement notes
Retrieved and checked: . Transcription of national rows in the original workbook, rounded to two decimals. Missing cells on this page are untranscribed, not zero. Published percentage cells are retained rather than recalculated from rounded amounts.
- NBS Transport Fare Watch, May 2026: original release ZIP
Publication date: not stated for this edition. The archive identifies the May 2026 edition but does not supply an edition-specific publication date. Catalog metadata dates are not report release dates.
Where to check: TRANSPORT COST Watch MAY_2026_.xlsx; sheet Transport May 2026; national rows 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; columns B–F.
- These are May 2026 national average fares, not current ticket offers. The air-fare series covers specified routes and a single journey; it is not a price for any particular route.