The rigours of having access to Liquified Natural Gas (LPG), popularly known as cooking gas in abeokuta and its environs have become a thing of the past as Ecogas Energy Resources Limited opened a new gas refiling plant in Ogun State capital.
The Ecogas Energy Resources Limited has recently acquired NUGO Gas Limited and upgraded the plant at Olomoore, Abeokuta, under Ecogas popular brand franchise.
Chief Shina Luwoye, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the company while speaking at the event confirmed that the new plant was in line with the company’s quest to be a major player in the LPG bottling business in Nigeria.
He stated that the plan was to champion use of clean and affordable LPG for more domestic and commercial use.
Also, he remarked that one of the visions of the company is to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country by paying taxes and be responsible to all their shareholders.
Furthermore, he revealed that the new plant was the 9th company to be opened, and the 7th of such to be domiciled in the state since its establishment.
Worried by the increased rate of unemployment in the country, Luwoye disclosed that the vision of the company was to take 1,000 job seekers off the streets for employment.
“The major and social problem confronting Nigeria now is unemployment. When you go out around 8am to 2pm you will see the number of children on our roads going to schools or coming out of schools.
“You will be disturbed that how do we cater, provide secured employment for this teeming generation that will be ready for employment market in the next few years.
“Every person God has blessed in this country economically, financially or otherwise must be thinking on what can be done for the coming generation, how to secure their future in order for the older generation to also have peace of mind at the end of the day.
“Principally, I think of a better Nigeria where all graduates can be fully employed as soon as they get out of their schools,” he submitted.
He added: “Beyond having a company, the most important thing is what will the company offer to the society. For EcoGas, the major thing we want to offer to the society is easy access to gas for more people to use.
“And to keep running a company that contributes to social development of the country, pay our taxes and be responsible to our shareholders and overall, we want to create employment for more people.”
For better customers relations, transparency and better service delivery, Luwoye said that the company has introduced cylinder check scales in its plants, saying customers are major stakeholders of the company.
He explained: “Thanks to her founders, the plant under NUGO Gas Ltd had been existing for over 15 years at the Olomore, Abeokuta and it will continue to exist now as a fully owned subsidiary of Ecogas Energy Resources.
‘The strong personalities of Ecogas; 365 days availability, fast and accurate filling scales, ambient filling environment, warm and well trained staff, have been brought to bear as a result of the acquisition and Ecogas brand identity.
“ECogas is a very matured wine that has just been brewed in a new bottle. What we resolved to do is to give it a brand identity and the strong identity inherent in Ecogas brand. When you are buying actually you are buying from Nugo gas and it is just Ecogas that is running it.”
Speaking on the hike in price of gas, Luwoye responded: “I want to assure Nigerians that it is not going to be permanent. I can tell you very soon we will see a nose dive price of LPG in Nigeria.
“The oil industry is denominated in dollars; therefore, we exchange services for dollars on all fronts. The expatriate working for you will be paid in dollar, the rig, the plant for production is paid for in dollars, hence the pull principle is at work within the industry.
“However, we are optimistic that things will ease-off as we move to the first quarter of 2022 across international and domestic oil markets.”
Luwoye who lamented the multiple taxation in the petroleum and gas sector hereby appealed to the Federal Government to ease ways of doing business in the petroleum and gas sector of the country.
He said: “There have been multiple taxes in the sector by government in recent times. The VAT and PPPRA charges on LPG translate to high pricing on every purchase because each 12.5kg consumers buy in the market government has imposed additional taxes; increasing the original landing cost to as high as extra N5.”
He appealed to the federal government to see to adjusting the multiple taxation so that LPG use can continue to grow in line with the aspirations and the agenda of PMB government.
