The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has announced plans to significantly reduce the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, commonly known as cooking gas, warning that his company may bypass distributors and sell directly to consumers if market prices don’t reflect the reduction.
During a recent tour of the massive Dangote Refinery, Africa’s richest man revealed the facility is currently producing 22,000 tonnes of LPG daily and scaling up distribution to support Nigeria’s transition to cleaner cooking fuels.
“The one that we didn’t write, which you must have seen, is LPG. Currently, we do LPG of about 2,000 tonnes per day. You know Nigeria is gradually moving to the usage of LPG. But I believe it is expensive, but right now we’re trying to bring down the price and make it cheaper,” Dangote stated.
The billionaire industrialist described current prices ranging between ₦1,000-₦1,300 per kilogram as prohibitive for most Nigerians who still rely on firewood, pledging to make cooking gas more affordable.
However, the announcement has drawn sharp criticism from industry players who accuse Dangote of attempting to monopolize the sector. Godwin Okoduwa, former Chairman of the LPG and Natural Gas Downstream Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, slammed the move as anti-competitive.
“I think it’s monopolistic. I think a market should be protected to encourage growth,” Okoduwa argued, highlighting how Nigeria’s LPG market grew from 70,000 metric tonnes in 2007 to over 1.3 million tonnes in 2022 through collaborative efforts between government, NLNG and private investors.
“Everything was done in collaboration…There are people who have spent money, spent resources, even business and development, and someone just comes in to reap from the work that has been done,” he lamented, urging Dangote to respect existing market structures.
Okoduwa suggested focusing on market expansion rather than control: “The Nigerian LPG market can be 5 million tonnes. He should work towards collaboration rather than competition, because at the end of the day, everybody benefits.”
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers, Bassey Essien, expressed skepticism about Dangote’s direct-to-consumer sales promise, drawing parallels with petrol distribution challenges: “What is the position with PMS? Has the refinery been able to sell petrol directly to you and me into our cars at a very cheap rate?”
