Nigeria: Nigeria Blessed With Gas, No Family Should Use Firewood for Cooking - Minister

What the report says

AllAfrica, carrying a Premium Times report, says Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, launched a federal programme in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Tuesday to widen household access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas, or cooking gas. Ekpo said Nigeria’s large gas endowment should improve daily life for citizens and argued that families should not have to rely on firewood when cleaner fuel is available in the country.

The initiative, named the National Grassroots LPG Penetration Programme, is part of Nigeria’s Decade of Gas Initiative. According to the report, it is being implemented with private-sector partners including Seplat Energy, ExxonMobil, NNPC, NLNG, Dangote Group, SPDC and TotalEnergies. The programme is intended to encourage the use of LPG as a cleaner, safer and more efficient cooking fuel, with Bayelsa serving as the first state in a wider state-by-state rollout following earlier zonal activities across the six geopolitical zones.

Ekpo said Nigeria has more than 215 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and that President Bola Tinubu’s administration wants to convert those resources into development, energy security and broader economic benefits. He described the Bayelsa launch as part of a push to bring clean cooking energy closer to households and communities.

Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri flagged off the free distribution of LPG cylinders and welcomed the programme, linking it to long-standing Niger Delta concerns over poverty and environmental degradation despite the region’s resource wealth. The report also noted recent pressure on LPG prices from global supply disruptions and domestic bottlenecks, an issue that could affect adoption even as the government promotes cleaner cooking.