Vice President of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association, Gabriel Kumi, has welcomed government’s decision to lift ban on LPG retail outlets.
According to him, the move will help members of the Association to recoup investments made into construction of retail outlets.
Mr Kumi further explained that a lot of investments “have gone down the drain”, as members have invested a lot of funds into construction of new LPG stations.
“We were in the process of constructing hundreds of these stations before the ban. One would have expected that those which were already under construction [and] those given permit by constitutionally mandated bodies are allowed to continue to operate”.
Gabriel Kumi
Additionally, Mr Kumi revealed that during the ban a consultant visited these stations and run an estimate on the investment made by members.
“He came up with… GHC60 million. So, for the past few years, we have been pressing on government to allow us to complete these stations, so that we can recoup the investments that our members have put into these [outlets].
“So, this comes as a very welcoming news and we are very grateful to government for seeing the need to ensure that these investments are recouped. These investments were done by indigenous Ghanaians. You know the LPG industry is one of the few local industries that we have. We have a hundred percent Ghanaians who are operating these [businesses]. So, it is important that we don’t allow $10 million to just go down the drain”.
Gabriel Kumi
LPG Marketers Association appeal to government
In May this year, the Association appealed to the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, to facilitate the lifting of the suspension of new gas retail outlets.
Their plea for help came after petitions made to government to accelerate action on the lifting of the ban by the National Petroleum Authority. This, the Association revealed, was to enable operators of LPG stations recoup their investments.
Prior to the 2017 Atomic junction gas explosion in Accra, some 100 LPG retail outlets were under construction.
Following the incident, fourteen of the outlets had since been completed, awaiting permit to commence full scale operations. Also, 21 had received fire permits, Environmental Protection Agency permit, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly Development permits, as well as NPA construction permit.
Implementation of Cylinder Recirculation Module
Following the Atomic Junction Gas explosion in 2017, President Akufo-Addo directed the implementation of the Cylinder Recirculation Module.
By this, gas cylinders will no longer be filled up at gas retail outlets, but filled cylinders would be bought from distributors.
Reacting to concerns of job losses by gas operators, the National Petroleum Authority indicated that the Cylinder Recirculation Model would create at least 4,500 jobs across the country.
According to the then Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Hassan Tampuli, the module when fully introduced would create jobs for distributors and retailers at the various bottling plants.
Then, two companies were given licenses to establish and operate LPG bottling plants in different parts of the country.
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