Business

Nigeria, Others Need $7.5bn To Deepen LPG Usage – Refiners

Published

2 years ago

May 9, 2023

Editor

To displace charcoal with clean cooking gas, also known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas, would cost Nigeria and other countries in Africa about $7.5bn for downstream infrastructure and stoves, the African Refiners and Distributors Association has said.

It also stated that the continent remained the lowest in per capita consumption despite its huge abundance of gas, stressing that it was high time stakeholders came up with finance strategies and solutions to address the bottlenecks to clean cooking gas usage on the continent.

The Executive Secretary, ARDA, Anibor Kragha, who disclosed this during an LPG virtual workshop by the group, stated that while sub-Saharan Africa had 14.4 per cent of the world’s population, it had less than one per cent of global LPG consumption.

“Many countries have little or no bulk handling facilities,” Kragha stated.

He, however, noted that LPG consumption in Africa had more than doubled since 2010, noting that the consumption recorded 9.7 per cent annual growth rate over the past decade.

He said Nigeria remained the largest LPG consumer, adding that LPG was the fastest growing petroleum product in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Vice President, LPG, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Argus, David Appleton, said cooking gas was critical to energy security in Africa.

He noted that safety, pricing, culture and finance were critical to the growth of the sector in Africa, stressing further that infrastructure development remained a key issue.

Appleton said investors in the sector would definitely expect returns on investments, adding that there must be a way to de-risked investments as much as possible.

He said Africa must think about long term investments and that there was a need for regulatory progress and consistency.

The Senior Associate, Investments, African Finance Corporation, Moussa Dabo, who disclosed at the event that the firm had invested $10.5bn across 36 countries in Africa, said there was need to improve governance and institutions for Africa to attract investments.

Dabo noted that lenders were more comfortable lending to organisations that were willing to establish the best-in-class business practices.

According to him, stability and practicability of cash flow could significantly help reduce cost of financing, while driving more investment into LPG.

“Securing favourable, diversified and long term supply contracts with established global traders is necessary and players in the sector should recalibrate their capital structure before seeking financing,” Debo stated, as he explained that equity injection in the business could help lower financing costs.

Also, in a presentation by Wagl Energy Limited, stakeholders at the company noted that the potential for LPG consumption in Africa could improve if the continent was committed to solving challenges in the areas of gas production that prioritised local market, shipping, storage as well as distribution to other end-users.

The company explained that the inadequate number of LPG vessels owned and managed by sub-Saharan African companies was one of the infrastructure issues facing LPG growth in the region.

It decried the limited LPG storage facilities in the region, stressing that several ports and jetties in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in places such as Nigeria, also had draft restrictions, with their drafts tending to range between 8 – 8.5m.

The gas firm further noted that of the three challenges, the greatest opportunity was in solving the storage bottleneck, as the sub-Saharan region was suffering from a severe lack of LPG storage facilities.

Business

Naira Appreciates Massively Against US Dollar In The Black Market, Highest In 15 Months

Published

6 hours ago

September 25, 2025

Editor

The naira appreciated massively against the United States dollar at the parallel foreign exchange market.

Abubakar Alhasan, a Bureau De Change operator in Wuse Zone, Abuja, told DAILY POST that the Naira strengthened significantly to N1,490 per dollar on Wednesday, up from N1,520 on Tuesday.

“We buy at N1480 and sell at N1490 on Wednesday due to lower FX demand,” Alhasan confirmed to newsmen.

This means that the Naira gained N30 against the dollar on a day-to-day basis.

The last time they were exchanged at this level in the black market was in June 2024.

Meanwhile, at the official market, it dropped marginally by N1.19 to N1,488.56 per dollar on Wednesday, down from N1,487.37, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Analysing the trend at both markets, the difference between official and parallel markets has shrunk to 1.44.

Recall that on Tuesday, the Naira appreciated across official and parallel foreign exchange markets upon an interest rate cut by the apex bank by 50 basis points to 27 per cent.

Business

Why We Rejected Govt’s Plan To Sell Assets – PENGASSAN President

Published

8 hours ago

September 25, 2025

Editor

The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, has revealed the reasons oil unions rejected the government’s plan to sell assets.

Osifo said that the plan will be injurious to the Nigerian economy in the long run.

He made this statement on Wednesday, while responding to questions in an interview on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television.

“What informed our position in this is that as PENGASSAN and NUPENG, we represent the workforce of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

“So it’s our responsibility first to our members to ensure that their jobs are protected and to ensure that their welfare is enhanced.

“Secondly, our members live in a country called Nigeria. Nigeria must survive and strive before our members will be able to survive.

“So we feel the move to go in this direction will not just affect the plights of our members but is injurious to Nigeria’s economy in the long run.

“The oil unions’ rejection of this plan is to protect Nigeria’s economy and the welfare of its members.

“This decision will certainly boomerang, revenue will plummet, and it will lead to a lot of other issues,” Osifo said.

Business

Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Nigeria Can Dominate AfCFTA

Published

2 days ago

September 23, 2025

Editor

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria has what it takes to lead Africa’s new era of trade if it tackles high logistics costs, develops efficient payment systems, and invests in value addition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was speaking on the sidelines of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria and other African economies must speed up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, and build stronger infrastructure to unlock billions of dollars in opportunities in manufacturing, services, and digital trade.

“The AfCFTA is a great step, but Africa trades only about 15–20 percent within itself — far below the European Union, EU’s 60 percent. We (Nigeria) need to speed up implementation so Africans trade more with each other.

“Take Lesotho: it exports around $200 million worth of textiles (jeans, etc.) to the U.S. — about 10 percent of its GDP — while Africa imports $7 billion of similar goods. Why not absorb Lesotho’s products within Africa? To unlock intra-African trade, we (Nigeria) need efficient payment systems (Afreximbank and others are working on this), better infrastructure and lower trade costs. It shouldn’t take longer to ship goods from Cape Town to Lagos than from China to Lagos.

“With critical minerals, energy, and new supply chains, plus opportunities in services and digital trade, there’s huge potential — if we invest in connectivity and implementation,” she said.

The former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance also cautioned that negative narratives about global commerce risk overshadowing recent successes achieved through multilateral cooperation.