Nigeria clarifies position on banning importation of gas cylinders

*The Federal Government discloses it has no immediate plan to ban importation of gas cylinders, but to get Liquefied Petroleum Gas to consumers in the remotest of villages to discourage the use of firewood and other fuels inimical to the environment

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

In view of the proposed ban on importation of the product into Nigeria, the Federal Government has said that it has no immediate plan to embargo the importation of gas cylinders into the country as part of its LPG expansion and implementation plan.

Mr. Dayo Adesina, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Domestic Gas in the Office of the Vice-President, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria Sunday, June 27, 2021, in Abuja, FCT.

The Presidential aide said the government rather, was working first on building local production capacities before contemplating a ban on importation into the country thereafter.

Nigeria still has a lot of cylinder deficits to fill in meeting the LPG expansion plan, Adesina stated.

According to the SSA on Domestic Gas in the Office of the Vice-President, who is also the Programme Manager of the National LPG Expansion and Implementation, the Nigerian Government’s immediate plan is to get LPG to the remotest of villages and discourage the use of firewood and other fuels that are inimical to the environment.

He noted that for the country’s over 200 million population, there are only about two million gas cylinders, the situation which he said is comparatively poor with regard to what obtains in other countries of the world.

“But Nigeria, with over 200 million people, has less than two million cylinders. So, if you had 20 cylinder manufacturing plants, it still won’t be enough.

“We have a new one that opened in 2019, two that are shut down and three that have sought approval for manufacturing.

You cannot ban what you don’t have.

“Banning importation is not going to solve the problem. It is going to worsen the problem,” Adesina clarified.

He added that the government needs to move quickly to inject cylinders nationwide, if it must keep its commitment to reducing emission in Nigeria.

Kindly Share This Story