The 10 Nigerian States With the Cheapest Fuel in March 2026

The National Bureau of Statistics released its Premium Motor Spirit Price Watch for March 2026, and the data shows meaningful gaps between states at the top and bottom of the pricing table. For motorists, transporters, and farmers trying to manage costs, those gaps matter.

Some states are absorbing the pressure through transport palliatives. Others are investing in CNG infrastructure to reduce petrol dependence altogether. A few are doing both. None of them escaped March without a month-on-month price increase, but some are managing the environment far better than others.

Here is the full breakdown of the 10 states where Nigerians paid the least for petrol in March 2026, what they paid, and what their governments are doing in response.

Lagos Records the Lowest Price in the Country at N1,162.71 per Litre

Lagos tops the cheapest fuel list in March 2026, with an average pump price of N1,162.71 per litre. That figure is up from N966.61 per litre in February and higher than the N975 per litre recorded in March 2025, so the direction of travel is upward. But Lagos still holds the national pricing advantage it has consistently enjoyed, and the reason is structural rather than political.

As Nigeria’s commercial capital and primary port of entry for imported petroleum products, Lagos benefits from shorter supply chains, stronger market competition among retailers, and higher throughput volumes that keep margins tighter than in landlocked states. The state government has not announced direct fuel price interventions, but its structural position does the work that policy cannot easily replicate elsewhere.

Ogun Ranks Second at N1,169.78 per Litre

Ogun recorded an average petrol price of N1,169.78 per litre in March, rising from N1,029.67 per litre in February and slightly above the N1,143.79 per litre seen in March 2025. Its proximity to Lagos gives it some of the same supply chain advantages, and the state government has moved to ease the pressure on workers through direct fiscal measures. Ogun approved a N10,000 monthly transport allowance for public servants and introduced a weekly day off, measures that the state extended to pensioners for an initial three-month period.

Kaduna Posts a Dramatic Year-on-Year Fall to N1,193.40 per Litre

Kaduna recorded N1,193.40 per litre in March, up from N1,000.07 per litre in February but significantly below the N1,650 per litre recorded in March 2025. That year-on-year decline of nearly N457 per litre is the steepest annual improvement among all 10 states on this list, and it reflects deliberate state-level intervention rather than market accident.

Governor Uba Sani’s administration deployed free CNG buses for workers and residents, reducing the daily commuting cost burden without directly controlling petrol prices. The approach treats fuel affordability as a transport problem rather than purely an energy pricing problem, and the March 2026 data suggests it is having some effect on the state’s relative position nationally.

Nasarawa Comes Fourth at N1,213.80 per Litre

Nasarawa posted N1,213.80 per litre in March, up from N1,042.68 per litre in February but below the N1,238.21 per litre recorded a year earlier. The state’s policy response focuses on building alternative fuel capacity rather than managing petrol pricing directly. Nasarawa has invested in training technicians to convert vehicles from PMS to CNG and LNG, creating a skills base that supports the CNG transition over time. Direct broader interventions remain limited, but the state’s momentum on cleaner fuel adoption distinguishes it from peers at similar price points.

Kogi Records N1,217.24 per Litre

Kogi recorded N1,217.24 per litre in March, rising from N1,002 per litre in February but still below the N1,298.94 per litre recorded in March 2025. Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo’s administration has rolled out CNG conversion kits as its primary policy response, aiming to reduce household and commercial dependence on petrol progressively. The conversion kit programme targets transporters directly, addressing the cost pressure where it bites hardest for most residents.

Kwara Ranks Sixth at N1,224.28 per Litre

Kwara’s average petrol price stood at N1,224.28 per litre in March, compared to N1,064.63 per litre in February and N1,106.14 per litre in March 2025, so the state moved upward both month-on-month and year-on-year. Unlike several peers on this list, Kwara has not announced major direct interventions targeting fuel costs. Its relatively lower average price reflects market conditions rather than active government pricing management, though the state continues to attract scrutiny over fiscal transparency and how its budget allocations translate into resident welfare.

Ekiti Posts N1,246.16 per Litre

Ekiti recorded N1,246.16 per litre in March, up from N1,015.71 per litre in February and significantly higher than N963.40 per litre in March 2025 – one of the sharper year-on-year increases on this list. The state government has sought to cushion residents through its N415.57 billion 2026 budget while also confronting distribution-side market distortions. Authorities warned fuel marketers in March against deliberately withholding products to create artificial scarcity, a move that signals the government is watching the downstream market for manipulation that pushes prices above natural market levels.

Rivers and Abia Tie at N1,247.84 per Litre

Rivers and Abia recorded identical average prices of N1,247.84 per litre in March, though both arrived there from different directions.

Rivers rose sharply from N1,030.74 per litre in February, compared to N1,175.54 per litre in March 2025. The oil-producing state has faced the awkward tension of sitting atop Nigeria’s hydrocarbon wealth while its residents pay elevated fuel prices. The state’s N1.8 trillion “Budget of Resilience” for 2026 includes support for CNG adoption and broader economic resilience measures, though no direct state-led fuel price intervention has materialised.

Abia rose from N1,095.19 per litre in February and came in below the N1,305 per litre recorded in March 2025, making it one of the few states on the list with a year-on-year improvement. Governor Alex Otti’s administration supports subsidy removal reforms and has framed the oil price gains partly linked to Middle East geopolitical tensions as a fiscal opportunity to strengthen public finances and lift infrastructure spending.

Plateau Ranks Tenth at N1,252.45 per Litre

Plateau closes the list at N1,252.45 per litre in March, up from N1,051.73 per litre in February. However, the figure sits below the N1,450.80 per litre recorded in March 2025, giving the state one of the better year-on-year comparisons despite the monthly increase. Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s administration has acknowledged the particular weight that fuel costs place on farmers and transporters in an economy that depends heavily on agriculture. The state’s N914.8 billion 2026 Appropriation Bill, with 62 per cent directed toward capital expenditure, positions infrastructure investment as the long-term lever for easing living costs rather than short-term price controls.

What the March 2026 Data Tells Us About Nigeria’s Fuel Market

Several patterns emerge clearly from the NBS figures. North-Central states dominate the list, with Plateau, Kwara, Kogi, and Nasarawa all ranking among the cheapest markets nationally. CNG is consolidating as the most common state-level policy response, with Kogi, Nasarawa, and Kaduna all actively promoting alternatives to petrol through conversion kits, trained technicians, and free buses respectively.

Every single state on this list recorded a month-on-month price increase in March, even the cheapest. That uniformity reflects forces operating above the state level: deregulation, global crude oil prices inflated by Middle East tensions, supply chain dynamics, and the lingering structural impact of subsidy removal. No state can fully insulate its residents from those forces through local policy alone.

What the data also shows is that states experimenting with responses, from transport allowances to CNG transitions, are at least partially shielding residents from the worst of the pressure. Whether petrol ever becomes affordable again in Nigeria depends on market structure, refinery capacity, and exchange rate stability. What states can control in the meantime is how creatively they respond to the pressure their residents are already under.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which state has the cheapest fuel in Nigeria in March 2026? Lagos recorded the lowest average petrol price in Nigeria in March 2026 at N1,162.71 per litre, according to the NBS Premium Motor Spirit Price Watch.

Why is fuel cheapest in Lagos compared to other states? Lagos benefits from structural supply chain advantages. As Nigeria’s main commercial hub and primary import gateway, it has shorter distribution distances, higher market competition among fuel retailers, and greater throughput volumes that keep retail margins lower than in most other states.

Did fuel prices rise everywhere in March 2026? Yes. All 10 states on the cheapest fuel list recorded month-on-month price increases in March 2026 compared to February, reflecting nationwide market pressures from deregulation, global crude price increases, and supply chain dynamics.

Which state recorded the steepest year-on-year improvement in fuel prices? Kaduna recorded the sharpest year-on-year decline, falling from N1,650 per litre in March 2025 to N1,193.40 per litre in March 2026, a reduction of nearly N457 per litre over 12 months.