In its continued efforts to ensure all households have access to Liquified Natural Gas (LPG), popularly known as cooking gas, the ECOGAS Energy Resources Limited has acquired NUGO Gas Ltd and upgraded the plant at Olomoore, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital under Ecogas popular brand franchise.
While speaking at the event, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Shina Luwoye said the new plant was in line with the company’s quest to be a major player in the LPG bottling business in Nigeria, saying it is also to champion use of clean and affordable LPG for most domestic and commercial use.
He said 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.
He revealed that the new plant is the 9th one for the company and the 7th one, 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 is to take 1,000 job seekers off the streets for employment.
His words: “The major and social problem confronting Nigeria now is unemployment. When you go around 8 am to 2 pm you will see the number of children on our roads going to schools or coming out of schools, you must 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 should 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.”
Read also: Rising gas prices threaten domestic market growth
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 the 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 customer relations, transparency and better service delivery, Luwoye said the company has introduced cylinder check scales in its plants, saying customers are the major stakeholders of the company.
“Thanks to its founders, the plant under NUGO Gas Ltd hasz 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 and, warm and well-trained staff, have been brought to bear as a result of the acquisition and Ecogas brand identity.
According to him, “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.”
On the hike in the price of gas, Luwoye said: “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 dollars, the rig, the plant for production is paid for in dollars, hence the pull principle that 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 taxations in the petroleum and gas sector 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 governments 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 an extra N5.”
He appealed to the Federal Government to see to adjust the multiple taxations so that LPG use can continue to grow in line with its aspirations and agenda.
