The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we study an eigenvalue problem for the fractional p-sub-Laplacian over the fractional Folland–Stein–Sobolev spaces on stratified Lie groups. We apply variational methods to investigate the eigenvalue problems. We conclude the positivity of the first eigenfunction via the strong minimum principle for the fractional p-sub-Laplacian. Moreover, we deduce that the first eigenvalue is simple and isolated. Secondly, utilising established properties, we prove the existence of at least two weak solutions via the Nehari manifold technique to a class of subelliptic singular problems associated with the fractional p-sub-Laplacian on stratified Lie groups. We also investigate the boundedness of positive weak solutions to the considered problem via the Moser iteration technique. The results obtained here are also new even for the case $$p=2$$
p
=
2
with $$\mathbb {G}$$
G
being the Heisenberg group.