Following the gains recorded in implementing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content (NOGIC) Act 2010, the federal government has approved $350 million of the Nigerian Content Fund (NCF) to encourage local manufacturing of gas cylinders in the country.
It was gathered that this decision by the government to encourage local manufacturing of cylinders prompted the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to cancel a recent plan by the Retail Department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to launch imported cooking gas cylinders in the country.
She insisted that the corporation should encourage efforts to manufacture cylinders locally, in line with the Nigerian Content Act.
Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Ernest Nwapa, confirmed that the Minister has directed the agency to issue a public notice to encourage local and foreign operators willing to invest in local manufacturing of cylinders.
“We want Nigerians to cook with gas but we do not want them to continue to import cylinders. We can say that if any bank wants to fund a gas cylinder plant we are willing to take let us say $50 million and put in the special fund to underpin that transaction. But we are not going to give somebody $50 million to go and start manufacturing. It is the role of the banks to fund projects,” he explained.
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