Lagos: The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, announced on Friday that the Federal Government would collaborate with the Techno Oil Group to execute the newly introduced marketer cylinder ownership policy.

Osinbajo made the announcement in Lagos while commissioning the multi-billion-naira cooking gas cylinder manufacturing plant built by Techno Oil Ltd. in Lagos.

He said that government introduced the marketer cylinder ownership policy in its bid to boost Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) adoption in Nigeria.

“The model will eliminate consumers’ up-front purchase of LPG cylinders, which in some cases are sub-standard, replacing it with a cylinder exchange model, where the consumer only pays for the content.

“No household will need to purchase or own an LPG cylinder in Nigeria again.

“The cylinders will be delivered and retrieved by the marketers, who will also be responsible for the maintenance and refurbishment of the cylinders, making LPG accessible to a whole new segment of non-LPG users.’’

The vice-president said that government had also introduced other measures, including removal of five per cent value-added tax from the domestic pricing of LPG to give advantage to local investors.

He said that government was doing its utmost to harness the abundant resources in the gas sector, disclosing that the National LPG Expansion Programme had been established to achieve set objectives of government in the LPG policy formulated two years ago.

“We identified that it is necessary to emphasize coordination and collaboration in promoting LPG adoption as previous attempts in achieving the goal has failed because of fragmented approach within the government.’’

Osinbajo said that progress had been made in LPG adoption, assuring that 13.8 million households in the country would be made to embrace LPG within the next five years.

“Techno Oil’s investment auspiciously converges with our administration’s efforts to speedily diversify our economy, through domestic and indigenous solutions.’’ he stated.

“The visionaries and management of Techno Oil deserve our hearty commendation for making this substantial investment in the development of the gas sector.

“The Federal Government will continue to work with Techno Oil Group to ensure that the company succeeds in this noble venture,’’ Osinbajo assured.

The Executive-Vice Chairman of Techno Oil, Mrs Nkechi Obi, said that cylinder inadequacy and high cost of acquiring the facility had been taken care of with the building of the plant.

“This plant has an annual production capacity of over five million cylinders of different sizes and we believe it will go a long way to boosting the LPG adoption drive in Nigeria.

“We have just two million cylinders in circulation in Nigeria at present. However, in four months, this plant will produce one million cylinders.

“This means that we have the capacity to meet the country’s requirements and to produce for export to other West African countries,’’ Obi said.

She, however, appealed to government to provide necessary support to the company to sustain local manufacturing of the cylinders.