The founder of LPG in Nigeria, Godwin Okoduwa, has attributed the scarcity and hike in the price of cooking gas to supply issues. Okoduwa made this known on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. “The major issue is actually a supply issue.
You noted that we have LPG available but are wondering why we are still facing scarcity and high costs,” Okoduwa said. He said the market is deregulated and since then has grown, moving from 70,000 metric tonnes to 1.6 million tonnes. Explaining why there is a supply issue, he said: “I would start with data.
Last year, from the 1.6 million tonnes per annum that the country consumes, Dangote moved 700,000, 43 per cent of the market. NLNG did about 500,000 metric tonnes; the others came from the likes of Kwale Hydrocarbons and other gas plants spread across the South-South and the South-West.
“Then we had less than 20 per cent import. Prior to now, we had close to between 40 and 50 per cent imports, but when the Dangote Refinery started, there was no need for imports. In fact, if you import, you get your fingers burnt, so this became the case, and why did we have up to 15 per cent?
We had about 50 per cent last year,” he said. “We have 15 per cent because the Dangote refinery went into maintenance. If you look at NMDPRA figures of 2025 you will see that in the month of September, there was this dip in the month of September. In the month of September, the market took about 117,000 metric tonnes.
That is very low in the market, which was doing 140,000 tonnes. “It happened because the Dangote Refinery was down. There was maintenance going on. Apart from the March figure, if you go to September, there was this outcry, scarcity in September.” READ ALSO: Cooking Gas: Stop Mere Talks, Focus On Practical Solutions, Marketers Tell FG, Others Across the country, the cost of LPG, which is commonly known as ‘cooking gas ‘, has skyrocketed, moving from around ₦1,300 per kg, depending on the area, to ₦1,700 and ₦2,200 per kg.
The hike in price has raised concerns among Nigerians, with many saying the development has brought hardship to households that rely on gas for cooking. However, the LPG founder claimed that more imports are coming in and prices are going down.