The Programme Manager, National Liquefied Petroleum Gas Expansion Implementation Plan, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Dayo Adeshina, has decried that out of about 180 million Nigerians, only 1.8 million had adopted the use of LPG (cooking gas) in their homes.
Adeshina stated this recently in Lagos at the 7th annual LPG conference and exhibition, organised by the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association.
With the theme, “National LPG policy: Running an LGP economy,” he explained that poor awareness was responsible for the low adoption of LPG by Nigerians.
He said that the goal of the Federal Government was to see more Nigerians using LPG in their homes and offices. He, however, stated that the only means to achieving the goal was if there were massive investments in the LPG sector.
Also talking about some of the challenges in the LPG sector, Adeshina said, “These things are lacking — awareness, regulation, accessibility, availability, consumer behaviour and safe handling. In Nigeria, everyone owns a gas cylinder, whereas in other climes, the marketers do for easy exchange of the cylinders.
“We have cylinders that are up to 50 years old still being used in some homes in Nigeria, which is very dangerous. Education is very key. We need to do more in educating those who are still using firewood to cook, who think that gas usage is dangerous.
“For instance, there are only 1.8 million people using gas cylinders in the country. So, we need to invest in gas cylinder manufacturing if we must provide for the millions of homes that are still using firewood and kerosene.We also need to have gas cylinder certification and re-certification centres. These are all reasons why a public-private partnership must be encouraged in the industry.
“At the government level, we have a target that in five years’ time, there would be 100 per cent production of gas cylinders in the country and within the next two years, four million homes would have switched to using LPG. These goals are not impossible, which is why we call for massive investments in the LPG sector.”
Meanwhile, Adeshina called on stakeholders in the LPG sector to take safety issue seriously.
“There must be safety regulations and enforcement of such and the responsibility is for us all. There are illegal gas pedlars in almost every street in the country, but where do they get their LPG from? Is not from some plant owners?” he asked, adding, “It’s very important that industry stakeholders join hands together and enforce safety regulations. There should be regular safety training programmes organised by the stakeholders.”
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