Local gas cylinders

•To make gas available and affordable, we have to revive the cylinder firms and encourage more to join

Like tyre manufacturing plants and many other industries that have collapsed in the country and or relocated to other climes, resulting in the importation of tyres and other items produced by such companies, the two cylinder manufacturing companies in the country have also folded up due to high tariff on flat steel and power problem, among others. The result is the same: we are now forced to import gas cylinders, losing about $10million annually to such import.

President of the Nigerian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA), Mr. Dayo Adeshina, made the disclosure during a courtesy visit to The Punch Place, the corporate headquarters of Punch Nigeria Limited, Magboro, Ogun State.

According to Adeshina, “Our members can’t invest in infrastructure if a lot of the impediments from the government side are not addressed. Cylinders are a perfect example. We have two cylinder manufacturing companies in the country, but both of them have shut down due to high tariff on flat steel, and then, the power problem.

“Today, we solely rely on importation for cylinders. Of course, the duties on that are also extremely high. So, that is a big disincentive to anybody that wants to invest in the sector.”

If the NLPGA president is right, that “this country should have at least 12 cylinder manufacturing plants; Indonesia has well over 15 plants,” it is a sad commentary that we allowed the only two we had to pack up. But it is hardly surprising because it is not only in this area that such had occurred. That we import virtually anything, including the ones we have comparative advantage in, is a notorious fact. Only last week we were told that we import gari, Nigeria’s staple food, whereas 24 of the country’s 36 states produce cassava from where gari is derived.

Although $10million lost to the importation of gas cylinders might look small, considering the huge size of the country’s economy, it is such little drops of water that end up making the mighty ocean of the humongous amounts of scarce foreign exchange that we spend importing what we should naturally be producing. In this instance, our loss has been the gain of the countries from where we now import cylinders. We end up developing those countries to our own detriment even as we help them keep the jobs of those in the industries whereas the closure of the ones we had led to job losses.

This is sad. We urge the Federal Government to look into the issues militating against local production of gas cylinders. For starters, it should come up with incentives to bring back the companies that used to produce them the same way it has been assisting the textile, agricultural, aviation and other sectors. This should be by way of incentives, especially as they pertain to flat sheets and more importantly, power supply. The government must have realised that lack of constant power supply is actually a drag to the country’s economic development. It has to show more commitment to developing the sector.

In the same manner, we must expedite action on local production of steel. The country had what looked like a vibrant steel policy in the 1970s. If that had not been allowed to die, we would not have had to import flat steel. So, we must return to the basics to see how, for a start, we can bring back the two gas cylinder manufacturers back to life even as more investors are encouraged to open shop. The market is there, as the NLPGA president observed.

A country that wants to encourage people to switch over to cleaner fuels for domestic use should make gas available and affordable.