The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that the Federal Government spent $1b on importation of kerosene in 2015.
Osinbajo also revealed that the government had to spend so much on importing kerosene because a lot of families in Nigeria depend on the product.
Adding that “The low LPG consumption in Nigeria has resulted in heavy dependence on kerosene and firewood as primary domestic cooking fuel. The government has undertaken huge subsidy of over $1bn in 2015 on kerosene subsidy.”
The VP also said that a lot of women and children have been killed by diseases related to the use of firewood.
According to Punch, Osinbajo said the government is working hard to harness the untapped potentials in the Nigerian gas industry.
He also said the Federal Government will soon come up with a policy that will revolutionalise fuel consumption in Nigeria.
The VP also revealed that gas consumption in Nigeria increased in 2007.
He said “In the gas policy, liquefied petroleum gas has been identified as a viable source of stimulation of the socio-economic health of our nation. Nigeria’s LPG consumption had been declining until the NLNG intervened and since then, our LPG consumption has grown from 50 metric tonnes per annum to 400MTPA.
“Though this signifies some improvement in domestic LPG consumption, it translates to a per capita consumption of less than 2.5kg when compared to higher per capita consumption of some African countries. Also, about 40 per cent of our domestic LPG consumption in 2015 was imported, this impacts on our foreign exchange.”
VP Osinbajo has constantly assured Nigerians that they will see the change promised by President Buhari in another couple of years.
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