The Minister said this during the distribution of gas cylinders and cooking stoves to some selected workers from the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana National Nurses’ Association and the Ghana National Association of Teachers.

Other beneficiaries were Persons with Disability, religious leaders and Imams in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. The Minister said the Government, with the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company, had visited 40 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in six regions.

 He said the Programme aimed at encouraging the usage of LPG in households in order to minimise the use of firewood and charcoal for cooking, in view of the fast rate of forest degradation and associated environmental repercussions.

Mr. Armah-Kofi Buah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, advised the beneficiaries to observe safety precautions whenever using they used the gas cylinders to avoid any fire outbreaks. He said the Government, through prudent management, had stabilised the energy situation and ensured adequate supply of lean gas and LPG for electricity generation and domestic use, respectively.

The Minister noted that should the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) Oilfield start producing gas, it would bring additional gas reserves of 180 Million Standard Cubic Feet per day, which would ensure sufficient gas supply for industrial and domestic use. He stated that the Government, under President John Mahama, had added 1,000 megawatts of electricity to the National Electricity Grid since 2013 and remained committed to making Ghana the hub of energy supply in the West African Sub-region.

Mr. Yusuf Gyampson, the Presiding Member for the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, commended the Government for the initiative and asked Ghanaians not to tag the free gas cylinder distribution programme with political tint. There was a demonstration on the proper fixing and usage of gas cylinder to the public.