By Chizoba Ogbeche
Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to reposition Nigeria’s economy from its present over-dependence on oil to a gas-based economy by the year 2020.
This would not only create more jobs, but increase the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) by at least 40 per cent with a thriving business environment.
Making the call in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja yesterday was the national chairman of Gas Plant Marketers Association, Southern zone, Chief Dan Madueke,
Madueke, who is also the Managing Director of Dandilas Gas Company Limited, noted that with World Bank’s plan to end gas flaring by 2030, there was need for the Federal Government to partner with stakeholders in the private sector “to drive the use of gas to the remotest parts of the country.”
He said: “The knowledge of the downstream private sector gas operators will be joined with the competence and approvals of the concerned government agencies to quickly remedy the situation and begin to initiate plans on how to put gas into proper use in Nigeria.”
To tackle head-long the problems of gas flaring, Chief Madueke made case for the cooperation and assistance of the three tiers of government “in form of grant of facilities, approvals and financial assistance to hasten the accomplishment of the conversion of Nigeria into a gas-based economy.”
Regretting that 55 years after the country’s independence, less than 15 per cent of Nigerian population uses gas to cook while majority of them still cook with firewood and kerosene, as against what is obtainable in other gas producing countries, noting that such has placed the country as the second top gas flaring nation in the world and the first in Africa with an estimated 22.3 billion standard cubic feet of gas flared monthly, amounting to a loss of N173.766 billion yearly.
Commending President Buhari’s administration for using the right people to achieve the right objectives, Madueke noted that when the right things are done, Nigeria will create much more revenue by converting DPK (domestic kerosene) into aviation kerosene that is in high demand all over the world.
