Nigerians turn to gas to power their generators

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Transcript

00:00 Nigerian Justice Oja had been relying on a petrol generator to power his house in Abuja,

00:07 but after the country removed a fuel subsidy, which tripled the price of petrol, he changed

00:14 to a new device that allowed him to easily switch between liquefied petroleum gas, also

00:19 known as propane, and petrol.

00:23 Although it cost him about 50,000 naira or about $63 to replace the device, it has saved

00:29 him money in the long run.

00:31 "Where I do fill my 12.5 gas cylinder is 12,000 naira to fill it and that will give me an

00:39 average of 40 hours.

00:42 If I'm buying petrol that I will use for 40 hours, that means I'm buying petrol not less

00:48 than 50-something thousand or even more.

00:52 So if you check the difference, the difference is much."

00:54 Alabi Oluwashon, a mechanic in Lagos who converts generators to run on gas, told Reuters that

01:01 last month he has worked for 20 households.

01:05 He is in talks with more clients.

01:07 Despite the popularity of the service, Oluwashon said he had concerns about the security and

01:13 durability of the gas carburetor, which has been on the market for less than two months.

01:19 "This cylinder now, you have to take it away from it because this hose we are using is

01:25 rubber.

01:26 Any type that is made and gas try to escape out of it, it might cause fire."

01:34 The other concern is that gas burns quicker because it is lighter than petrol.

01:40 According to Kelvin Emmanuel, an analyst at Dairy Hills Limited, a public policy consulting

01:45 firm.

01:46 "We're expecting that the consumption of LPG per capita is actually going to increase

01:50 in Nigeria.

01:51 But the question we have to ask ourselves is, are we going to see innovation when it

01:57 comes to small household domestic gas generators as compared to retrofitting petrol generators

02:05 into gas?"

02:06 Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, but it imports almost all its refined fuel

02:14 due to inadequate refining capacity and neglect of existing refineries.