As the global push for clean energy gathers momentum, Nigeria and other African countries, despite being rich in natural gas reserves, are lagging in the adoption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for household use.
This comes as the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) warned that unless structural, financial, and policy-related barriers are urgently addressed, LPG may remain inaccessible for millions of Africans, with dire environmental and health consequences.
In Nigeria, natural gas reserves stand at about 209 trillion standard cubic feet, but marketers still have to import LPG, with the cost of refilling soaring in recent years.
Speaking at the recent Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) Symposium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Executive Secretary of African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), Anibor Kragha, said the continent’s continued reliance on biomass, especially wood, charcoal and animal waste as the primary fuel source for cooking is worrisome.
He described Africa’s LPG consumption outside North Africa as “negligible”, citing high upfront and refill costs, regulatory uncertainty and a lack of access to carbon credit financing as key barriers.
“In countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, which have large populations, LPG use is extremely low. The heavy capital investment needed to build LPG infrastructure, combined with shrinking fiscal headroom, makes the sector difficult to scale without external support,” Kragha stated.
In Nigeria, households spend an estimated N1.5 trillion on cooking gas yearly. Yet, as of 2024, only 19.4 percent of Nigerian homes use LPG, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Most are reverting to charcoal and firewood due to soaring gas prices, currently averaging N14,287.5 for a 12.5kg cylinder and poor affordability.
This regression threatens Nigeria’s national clean cooking targets and undermines efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The customs duty and VAT waivers introduced by the government have done little to reverse the trend, with structural issues such as lack of access to affordable refills and distribution bottlenecks limiting their impact.
Kragha noted that widespread use of biomass for cooking has profound public health and environmental implications.
Citing the African Development Bank, Kragha said poor access to energy cuts Africa’s Gross Domestic Product growth by two to four per cent yearly in some countries.
A Lancet study from 2018 also estimated that household air pollution-related diseases cost African economies about $120 billion a year, with nearly 1 million premature deaths attributed to indoor pollution. This is more than malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis combined.
Kragha noted that women and girls bear the brunt of the burden as they spend an estimated 40 billion hours each year collecting biomass for cooking, a time-consuming task that also exposes them to health risks and restricts educational and economic opportunities.
According to him, the environmental toll cost Africa an estimated 3.9 million hectares of forest yearly between 2010 and 2020.
Burning wood produces five times more carbon emissions per unit of cooking heat compared to LPG, yet nearly one billion Africans still cook with biomass, a figure Kragha expects to remain unchanged by 2030 without transformative intervention.
Historically, governments have attempted to drive LPG adoption through subsidies. However, the capital-intensive nature of the LPG supply chain, from bottling to distribution, requires substantial and sustained investment.
As fiscal pressures mount across African countries, many governments are pulling back from subsidy schemes, creating a ‘subsidy quandary’ that leaves households to bear the full cost of cleaner fuels.
Kragha also noted that the exclusion of LPG projects from most carbon credit mechanisms is a snag to the adoption.
While thousands of improved biomass stove projects across Africa have benefited from carbon financing, LPG, despite being cleaner, has not been similarly recognised.
“There is a critical opportunity here,” Kragha said, adding: “If we can unlock carbon credits for LPG, it would effectively provide an internationally-financed subsidy to help make clean cooking affordable for the poor.”
He acknowledged that some market-driven solutions are beginning to gain traction as innovations like ‘Pay As You Gas’ models using supermarket vouchers like PAYGAS, biodigesters, and metered LPG usage systems have shown promise in urban and peri-urban settings.
Yet these models require regulatory clarity, scale, and reliable financing, including from carbon markets to thrive.
Kragha called for greater coordination across government ministries and stronger political leadership to champion LPG as a viable, scalable clean cooking fuel.
“We need alignment from energy, environment, health, and finance ministries, supported by bold international investment and strategic bilateral agreements,” he said.
