The Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) has called on the Federal Government to discontinue subsidy on kerosene which has gulped about N1.7 trillion in six years.
This was even as President of NLPGA, Mr. Dayo Adesina, who spoke on the sidelines of the fifth annual gas conference organised in Lagos recently, called the Federal Government to initiate a national policy on Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) also known as cooking gas. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is the major importer of kerosene, according to the seventh House of Representatives, paid subsidy on kerosene to itself between 2009 and 2014, amounting to N1.7 trillion, while the government also budgeted over N45 billion to subsidise the product in the 2015 budget alone.
Adesina re-affirmed the willingness of NLPGA to support the Federal Government’s actions to encourage LPG usage nationwide; cautioning that subsidy payment on kerosene could be put to better use including deepening cooking gas usage in Nigeria.
Other stakeholders at the conference tagged: “LPG the Future is Now,” also bemoaned Nigeria’s per capita LPG consumption for being the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa. They expressed dissatisfaction with under-utilisation of the product, while advocating a boost to the multi-billion dollars LPG investments in the country. “The per capita consumption of Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) also known as cooking gas in Nigeria is the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Nuhu Yakubu, NLPGA Deputy President said.
“Nigeria is the second largest producer of LPG in Africa and the sixth largest producer in the World. We produce over 4 million tonnes of LPG per annum and have the capacity to consume as much,” Ekundayo said.
“In addition, we flare an additional 1-2 million tonnes of LPG inland. Ironically, Nigeria also has the lowest per capita consumption of LPG in sub-Saharan Africa at 0.8kg per annum. Consumption in 2014 was 350, 000 tonnes,” Duru added. Earlier, a professor at University of California, Berkley, Kirk Smith, said that ailments related to dirty fuel like kerosene and firewood would kill more Nigerians if nothing was done to encourage cleaner fuel as alternative fuel for cooking, powering machines, fuelling vehicles among others.
Delivering a paper entitled: “LPG and the health of the World’s Poor,” Dr. Smith said: “When firewood is used to produce it produces 400 cigarettes per hour.”
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