Public private partnership key to unlocking Nigeria’s LPG potential – ICRC boss

ICRC: Road transport infrastructure will speed -up development B uilding effective, quality road transport infrastructure has been described as the fastest way of driving full-scale development in African communities. This can only be achieved through bankable Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Engineer Chidi Izuwah, DirectorGeneral of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), stated this at the maiden Nigeria-South Africa Road Transportation Infrastructure and Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) collaborative initiative held in Abuja. “Through road networks, linking up population centers, rural communities with industrial clusters will lead to shared prosperity,” Izuwah said. “Roads not only link up communities and cities, they also drive technology.”

He added that with Nigeria having the largest road network in West Africa, a regional road network plan was necessary as it would have a direct impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of West African states. In his remarks, the South Africa’s Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Booby Moore, said the collaboration between Nigeria and South Africa on PPP-driven Infrastructure development was vital for the continent, because of the economic size of both countries. He promised that the initiative would spread to other economic sectors such as rail transport and aviation to ensure trade facilitation.

Nigeria currently has an expansive road network that spans nearly 200,000 km, but budgetary constraints have forced the Federal government to adopt a hybrid of direct budget allocation and the PPP template to meet the nation’s road transportation needs. Consequently, the event – an initiative of ICRC and Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa – is to serve as a catalyst for producing and supporting West African-focused regional transport and logistics infrastructure development programme.

Mr Chidi Izuwah, Director General, Infrastructure Conce s sion Reg ulator y Commission (ICRC) has said Public Private Partnership (PPP) was pivotal to unlocking Nigeria’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) potential. Izuwah spoke during a panel session at the 2019 Nigeria LPG Summit in Lagos, jointly organised by the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) and LPG Summit, based in Singapore.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit has the theme,” LPG: Harmonising Development and Growth in Nigeria and Africa.” Izuwah said Nigeria’s gas reserve was enormous, hence there was need for more local and foreign investors to come into the sector to help develop it. According to him, Nigeria is lagging behind in LPG penetration when compared to its African counterparts like

Chidi Izuwah

Majorwaves Energy Report JANUARY 2020, Vol 3 No 1 27 Ghana, South Africa and Senegal. He noted that the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, was committed to using PPP to develop Nigeria’s infrastructure across all sectors of the economy, including oil and gas. Izuwah said: “The ICRC is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring the efficient execution of all PPP projects entered into by Ministries, Departments and Agencies on behalf of the federal government. “As at July 2019, there are 69 post contract PPP projects under implementation in Nigeria and from 2010 to 2018, we have been able to attract $8 billion investments to the country through PPP.” He noted that opportunities in the LPG industry included production, supply, retail, distribution and manufacture of equipment such as cylinders and skids. Also, Mrs Nkechi Obi, Vice Chairman, Techno Oil Limited, urged the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to check the influx of substandard LPG (cooking gas) cylinders into the country. Obi said: ” We have set up a manufacturing plant where we are producing very high quality cylinders here in Lagos. “We are asking the government to discourage substandard imports from coming in through taxation so that our business can thrive.” Similarly, Mr Ahmad Damcida, Chief Executive Officer, Energy Culture Limited, said the DPR should ensure that all importers of cooking gas cylinders are properly licensed while SON should step up its certification processes. Damcida said there were specifications that must be adhered strictly to, noting that the age of some of the cylinders being brought into the country was unknown to the authorities.