Former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday, called for increased local investments in the gas business to realise its potential benefits to Nigeria.
Fashola made the call at the inauguration of an indigenous gas company, GASCO Marine Limited, located at Onijanganjangan community in Abeokuta-North Council Area of Ogun.
He said the call became necessary to enable Nigerians put gas into more productive uses and also help the country save billions of dollars often lost to fuel importation.
While appreciating the rising figure of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the country, the former minister specifically urged local businessmen to emulate the firm in investing in the business.
“We can continue to talk about gas flaring and carbon emissions and their negative impacts on the environment, but the situation will not change unless we do something about it,” he said.
Fashola, who commended the initiative, said such investment in gas would help government in protecting the environment for future generations.
Stressing the advantages in the use of gas, Fashola said that “there is about 60 per cent cost saving in the deployment of gas as an alternative to inefficient and polluting diesel.”
He also emphasised the benefit of employment generation through the value chain of gas production, processing, storage and distribution.
The Managing Director of the firm, Mr Bukola Badejo-Okusanya, told newsmen after the event that more than N2 billion had been invested into the project as an initial outlay.
Source NAN
