The Federal Government announced plans to feed 10 million cooking gas cylinders into the market over the course of one year.
Disclosing this was the Programme Manager, National LPG Expansion Implementation Plan, Dayo Adeshina, at a workshop sensitising Nigerians on LPG Adoption and Implementation for Industry Stakeholders convened in Lagos.
Adeshina, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stated that the eleven states that would pilot the injection of cooking gas cylinders are Lagos, Ogun, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina, Sokoto, Delta, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Enugu, Niger, and the Federal Capital Territory.
He explained, “The Federal Government is working towards injecting five to 10 million cooking gas cylinders into the market within the next one year. We are starting the cylinder injection under the first phase in 11 pilot states and FCT, with two states from each of the geopolitical zones.
“The states are Lagos, Ogun, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina, Sokoto, Delta, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Enugu, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory. The cylinders will be injected through the marketers. The marketers will be responsible for the cylinders and the exchange will take place in homes and not in filling stations.
“What this means is that going forward, cylinders will not be owned by individuals but by the marketers who will ensure that they are safe for usage.”
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FG’s Plans For Gas Cylinders
Earlier this year, the federal government founded a $40 million gas cylinder manufacturing plant at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos State in an effort to achieve a deeper penetration of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) that would create diversification in Nigeria’s economy.
The project, a collaboration between the Federal Government and the Rungas Group, will, according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, “catalyse the transition away from the heavy metallic LPG cylinders. It will also address the issue of high importation of LPG cylinders with the attendant economic losses.”
In 2020, the minister stated that many Nigerians didn’t use gas because “the penetration is low”, explaining that the low penetration was a result of “the initial capital outlay in using gas is quite high to the ordinary man.”
He added, “So what we are doing is to try and see how people can have access without necessarily investing all that money upfront.
“With this we believe that gas will now begin to compete with other cooking fuels, because today the advantage that kerosene has over gas is that if you don’t have the money to buy a litre of kerosene, you can buy a bottle or half a bottle.
“But when we roll out this programme, gas will become more affordable and we believe that a lot more people will use gas.”
