*The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers explains factors behind the hikes, and how the steep increments in gas prices are discouraging consumers from using gas, compelling some to use charcoal that harms the environment

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has blamed ‘portfolio investors’ for the current high cost of cooking gas in the West African country.

This development is being attributed to the Federal Government’s alleged removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) from the gas sector to maintain price stability.

ConsumerConnect, however, gathered the product marketers have continued to maximise profit by as much as 100 percent in the gas market.

Cooking gas prices soar in Nigeria

Mr. Oladapo Olatunbosun, President of NALPGAM, stated this Tuesday, June 28, 2022, while appearing before a Joint Committee of the House of Representatives investigating the prices of diesel and gas.

The government, through the NLNG, has been injecting sufficient gas into the market, but middlemen, who are aiming to maximise profits, are responsible for the steep price, declared the NALPGAM President.

Despite Olatunbosun’s claim, sources at the NLNG, said although the company now supplies all its petroleum gas to the Nigerian market, yet the supply meets only about half the local needs of Nigerian consumers.

The rest is imported, which is currently affected by the global oil crisis, report said.

Olatunbosun, Tuesday, in his presentation had told Federal lawmakers that the steep increase in the price of gas is driving consumers away from using gas, thereby moving to charcoal, which harms the environment.

He also stated: “The only way to stimulate investment is to make the price affordable.

“There are infrastructural challenges, but there are still human interventions that we need we need to control.”

The President further said: “Supply should be directly to people that need it. How many gas plant owners are actually off-takers.

“There are production going on in Oredo (Edo State). How many of them are they selling?

“People come from different angles who are portfolio investors, they buy gas and they hack on it, the price goes up.”

Olatunbosun urged stakeholders to make more investment in the sector in order to meet demand and also crash the relatively high product prices in the Nigerian market.

He as well observed that “in the long run, what Nigeria needs to do is to invite investors to invest simply in exploration.

“We have an abundant deposit of gas in the soil but the exploration is too low for the population.”

After his presentation, the lawmakers later had a closed-door session with the marketers, Malam Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, and others.

The average retail price of 10kg cooking gas in the country increased by 89.28 percent from N2,071.69 May 2021 to N3,921.35 May 2022, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).