Nigeria's federal government has moved to curb the hoarding and diversion of liquefied petroleum gas, popularly known as cooking gas, to neighbouring countries. The step is aimed at keeping the commodity within the country at a time when many households have been complaining about the rising cost of cooking gas.
As part of that move, the federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources has convened an emergency meeting, described as a stakeholders engagement. The session brought together several security and enforcement agencies to look at the situation around the supply and pricing of the product.
Among those included in the stakeholders engagement were the Department of State Services, the DSS, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the EFCC, and the Nigeria Police Force. Their involvement signals an enforcement dimension to the government's response to the cooking gas challenge.
According to the regulatory authority, the move followed the recent increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices. The meeting set out to develop coordinated measures intended to improve supply, affordability and market stability for the commodity across the country.
As part of the engagement, the stakeholders examined the factors contributing to the rising LPG prices. The idea is to understand what has been pushing the cost of cooking gas upward before settling on the steps needed to address it in a coordinated way.
For households that have been complaining about the price of cooking gas, the federal government is signalling that it is taking action on the issue. The message from the authorities is that those who have been holding and diverting the product to other countries will have to stop, as part of efforts to stabilise the local market.