Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Oil and Gas, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, has outlined a series of measures the Tinubu administration is deploying to tackle the rising cost of cooking gas, telling delegates at the 25th NOG Energy Week Conference that recent price spikes were a warning the government could not ignore.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Verheijen said gas remained central to Nigeria’s industrial ambitions but conceded that reform had taken a toll on households.
“The recent spike in cooking-gas prices was a warning that domestic supply, logistics, affordability and market discipline must move together,” she said. “A gas-rich nation cannot be comfortable when families are priced back to firewood, charcoal or kerosene.”
She said the government was responding on multiple fronts, including growing domestic LPG supply, rebuilding the import buffer, strengthening market surveillance and moving toward transparent pricing “so consumers, regulators and investors can see the market more clearly.”
Verheijen highlighted the VAT Modification Order of 2024, which exempts cooking gas and its entire equipment and conversion chain, including cylinders, valves, regulators, conversion kits and installation services, from Value Added Tax (VAT).
She also disclosed that her office had, since January 2024, enabled the issuance of about $92.6 million worth of Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) for LPG infrastructure, including roughly $30.4 million in 2026 alone, describing the incentives as part of a coordinated push aligned with the Decade of Gas, NNPC’s gas masterplan and the Presidential CNG Initiative.
Gas, she added, is “not a slogan” but instead Nigeria’s industrial backbone, vital for fuelling power generation, feeding fertiliser and petrochemical production, and for advancing CNG mobility, LNG exports, regional integration and cleaner kitchens.
Taken together, she said, the measures were designed to ensure that “gas powers industry, electricity becomes more reliable, cooking becomes cleaner and more affordable, and reform finally shows up in the daily life of the Nigerian family.“
