Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and president of the Dangote Group, has announced an ambitious plan to drive down the soaring prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, across Nigeria. Addressing business leaders during a recent refinery tour in Lekki, Lagos, Dangote revealed ongoing efforts at his refinery to boost LPG output and disrupt market barriers keeping gas unaffordable for millions of Nigerians.
Currently, many families struggle with cooking gas prices hovering between ₦1,000 and ₦1,300 per kilogram. This has forced large segments of the population to rely on firewood or kerosene, methods that are not only less efficient but also carry adverse health and environmental impacts.
Dangote outlined two key strategies to make LPG more accessible:
- Increasing Local Production: The refinery produces around 22,000 tonnes of LPG daily a capacity expected to alleviate scarcity and put downward pressure on market prices.
- Direct Sales to Consumers: If distributors hinder price reductions, Dangote signaled the group’s willingness to bypass middlemen and sell gas directly to households. “If the distributors are not trying to bring it down, we’ll go directly and sell to the consumers, so that people will now transit from firewood or kerosene to LPG for cooking,” he emphasized.
This direct-to-consumer threat is meant to break industry resistance and ensure the benefits of reduced costs reach end-users, supporting Nigeria’s gradual shift toward LPG adoption.
With the country’s energy landscape evolving, Dangote’s intervention is seen as a major step toward improving affordability and encouraging cleaner, safer cooking practices nationwide.