Mini-gas refill plants to be set up
Mini-gas refill plants are to be set up in some rural areas in the country to ensure the sustainability of the government's Rural Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Promotion Programme.
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This is part of efforts by the government to ensure the distribution of 50,000 cook stoves and LPG cylinders in those communities, as announced by President John Mahama in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament earlier this year.
In furtherance of that, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) have engaged LPG marketing companies and local dealers in talks to set up the mini-refill plants in low access areas in the country.
Mr John Jinapor, a Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum in charge of Power, disclosed this at the Northern Regional launch of the programme at Buipe in the Central Gonja District on Monday.
Beneficiaries
Three thousand residents of the district were presented with six-kilogramme LPG cylinders with cook stoves and accessories at the launch.
The district is the first to benefit from the programme in the Northern Region.
So far, about 8,500 of the cylinders with cook stoves and accessories have been distributed free of charge since the programme was rolled out this year.
The districts that have so far benefited are Garu-Tempane, Tano South and Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam in the Upper East, Brong Ahafo and Central regions, respectively.
Sustainability of programme
Mr Jinapor said as part of efforts to ensure the sustainability of the programme, the ministry and its collaborating agencies had ensured that prospective dealers in LPG cylinders worked with the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company to bring enough cylinders and cook stoves to all.
"As you well know, not too long ago Ghana operated the cylinder re-circulation model in which major oil marketing companies owned cylinders and supplied LPG to consumers. This was popularly known as the Coca-Cola model," he stated.
He said the ministry was, therefore, working with the relevant stakeholders to come up with guidelines and regulations to reintroduce the re-circulation model in the country, adding that that would increase access to and consumption of LPG.
Objective of programme
Mr Jinapor said the objective of the programme was to discourage the use of wood as a source of fuel and eradicate the harmful effect that continued burning of firewood had on the environment.
He said a monitoring and evaluation exercise conducted in some of the districts that had already benefitted from the programme across the country indicated that beneficiaries were impressed with the programme and had embraced the use of LPG as a cleaner, safer and more efficient form of burning fuel.
Some of the beneficiaries of the LPG cylinders at the launch expressed their appreciation to the government, saying that it would go a long way to save them from the risk and the health hazards associated with fetching and using firewood.
