• Targets 3m jobs in gas sector 

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

With Federal Government declaration of 2021-2030 as decade of gas, experts have held that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) N250 billion gas expansion fund would lead to increased usage of gas as main energy source across the country.

Nigeria, according to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), is sitting on about 207 trillion proven standard cubic feet of natural gas reserves which implies that the country has more gas than oil.

With power plants facing gas shortages and households contending with unprecedented rise in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) also known as cooking gas, the CBN intervention is seen as timely in government effort to encourage gas usage.

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Speaking on the plan of government to boost investment in the sector, Technical Adviser, Gas Business, to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Brenda Ataga, explained that the fund serves as a catalyst to grow gas usage in the country.

Ataga said the fund targets indigenous companies with preference given to gender based businesses on the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) side.

She explained: “Because the value chain is quite vast this funding enables the projects from the mid-stream all the way down to the micro-downstream level, we expect that in each of those pockets they would contribute a certain level of jobs.

“In the LPG space for instance, our job creation target is looking 750,000 minimum jobs, on the compressed natural gas (CNG), we are targeting an additional 250,000 jobs. This includes jobs from conversion centres to new vehicles that will be driven on CNG, new filling stations are going to come on-stream. On processing and manufacturing side, the jobs become a little bit linear because you don’t have a lot of manual labour.

“In contracting and unskilled, we will be looking at 20,000 jobs working on various projects but as fixed jobs on industrialization we will be looking at almost similar numbers because of the number of plants that we can actually set up with this money. So over all from this funding, we should be hitting three million jobs if we get it right and get the interest of Nigerians on board”.

Mrs. Ataga noted that the government is using the fund to encourage the setting up of micro-distribution centres that will help community based gas re-sellers to sell in “a fractional manner to rural dwellers and they termed under our startups.

“We know there a lot of unemployed youths who are out school, who have gone back home and not meaningfully employed today. This will help them come into the gas value chain, create the business reselling unit and sell to the communities.

“Not even just the unemployed youths, the women of the communities, we are looking at them as one of our critical categories as well as existing gas resellers or kerosene sellers who want to convert from declining business into the gas business”, she added.

Giving details about access to the fund, Ataga disclosed that of the 77 applications so far received, 27 were from high CAPEX section with obligor limit of N10 billion.

Ataga said on the small and medium scale enterprises, SME, section, with a limit of N50 million, 50 applications have been received, explaining that the SME portion is split into two categories: Startups and experienced applicants.

Also speaking on the fund, the National Chairman of Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN), Michael Chiejine said more focus should be given to gas supply to power plants.

He pointed out that increasing electricity generation and distribution is critical to Nigeria’s economic and social growth.

“It is good that the CBN is doing this and we hope that the fund will be properly managed. Gas is the future, we all know this but there has to be strict monitoring especially at the local level to ensure safety for all users.

“Gas retailing has to be the key and the government has to ensure that the prices are within the reach of the average Nigerian. In the past three months, we have seen gas prices skyrocketing, that is not a good sign and wont encourage people to switch over to the product”, he observed.