Nigeria ranks the lowest in the per capita
usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) with 1.1 kilograme consumption rate
behind South Africa, Morocco and Ghana.
The President, Women in LPG Global Network
(WINLPG), Mrs Nkechi Obi, who disclosed this in Lagos, berated poor LPG usage
in the country, urging the Federal Government to create an enabling environment
to encourage more investors coming into play with new filling plants and
terminals.
Obi, who is the Executive Vice Chairman,
Techno Oil Limited, however said the company has therefore taken the bull by
the horn by building a new LPG cylinder manufacturing plant in Lekki area of
Lagos. Noting that the construction is at advanced stage, she said the plant will
roll out five million units of cylinders yearly, and expected to take off in
the next 90 days.
The industrialist lamented that Nigeria
still ranked lowest in sub-Saharan Africa in per capita usage of LPG, consuming
1.1kg compared with Ghana at 3.0kg; South Africa consumes 5.5kg; while Morocco
consumes 44kg per capita.
The WINLPG president noted that making more
Nigerians to embrace cooking gas instead of using firewood would help in the
drive to sustain the environment and preserve the fragile eco-system. Obi
listed some challenges that had been making it difficult for more Nigerians to
embrace LPG to include inadequate public awareness on safety, limited
distributive outlets such as refilling plants and high cost of LPG cylinders
amongst others.
The private sector cannot do it alone, hence,
our humble submission is for government to handle the issue of awareness and
also provide enabling environment, financial and infrastructural incentives.
While the private sector will undertake the
other projects, such as Techno Oil is doing today, we submit that government
should do a one-off subsidy intervention by subsidizing cylinders to
households. “Government should use the National Orientation Agency to propagate
the campaign to switch from firewood/kerosene to cooking gas.
This will reduce the phobia and improve
public awareness that LPG is clean, safe and affordable; and also expose the
danger inherent in long use of firewood and kerosene. “LPG or cooking gas users
find it extremely difficult to refill their cylinders. Sometimes they travel as
far as 200km before they can access facilities to refill their cylinders.
Our desire is for government to provide
incentives for investors to build refilling plants and terminals and DPR to
incorporate LPG plants in all mega stations within reach of communities so that
people can refill their cylinders with ease and at an affordable cost,” she
said. “It is on the basis of these realities that Techno Oil started our
advocacy on “Going Green” “for a switch from firewood/kerosene to LPG.
Our passion for cleaner environment and
safety of our women enabled us incorporate it as part of our corporate social
responsibility. Our main objective is to create awareness for a switch to LPG,”
Obi added.
She stated that the company’s “Going Green”
advocacy in the last five years has increased the number and popularised
cooking gas usage among women. “We have aggressively distributed over 50,000
units of gas stoves at discounted prices through market women across the
country, and also donated to some indigent households.
Cooking with firewood is a silent killer
because firewood smoke is more dangerous than cigarette smoke,” she lamented.
Citing a recent World Health Organization report, she said that cooking with
firewood often resulted to indoor pollution, which globally accounted for over
four million deaths every year.
Source: Guardian
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