Abstract Detergents are chemicals of high environmental importance owing to their production volumes. They are mainly released into the environment through wastewater pathway and it could severely affect the soil environment. In this study, we examined the degradation potentials of soil bacteria in liquid culture media induced with detergents. Using conventional enrichment methods, via contaminated soil slurry enrichment with selected alkyl-benzene sulphonates (detergents), we obtained pure bacteria species capable of using alkyl-benzene sulphonates as the sole source of carbon and energy. From the morphological and biochemical characterization and comparison with respect to the standard reference organisms, the bacteria isolates were presumably Corynebacterium, Pseudomonas, and Bacillus species. Different concentrations 5.0, 10.0 15.0, and 20.0 w/v of the branded detergents were prepared as sole carbon and energy and screened against our bacteria species to determine their physiological gradient fluxes after 96hours of incubation. Data obtained showed an increase in Optical density (OD) as well as increases in pH flux values. The mean OD data obtained ranged between 0.017- 0.818, with a pH of 7.47-8.95. From this study, tropical soils possess unique bacteria species capable of utilizing alkyl-benzene sulphonates (detergents).