Two civil society organisations have welcomed the implementation of the cylinder recirculation model (CRM) being spearhead by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
The Executive Secretary of Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Mr Duncan Amoah, and the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IEA), Nana Amoasi VII said the NPA and its partners had done a lot of work to see to the seamless execution of the programme.
They were speaking in separate interviews after site visits to a cylinder bottling plant at Tema and a cylinder manufacturing company at the North Industrial Area in Accra on Wednesday.
The NPA announced the commencement of the implementation of the CRM from September, this year.
Under the model, residents of Accra and Kumasi will exchange empty cylinders for already filled ones at cylinder exchange points. The customer will have to register with their national identification cards or any other form of identification.
The policy is expected to increase uptake of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) from the current 29 per cent to at least 50 per cent by 2030. It is also expected to improve safety in the distribution value chain.
The CRM has been piloted in some areas in the Eastern, Ashanti and Northern regions.
Mr Amoah said about 94 per cent of the infrastructure work had been completed.
He said the remaining six per cent was about closing the loose ends, and ensuring additional safety standards.
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"Quite a lot of work has been done. The Authority has not gone to sleep.
"All said and done, I believe that the facility will go on well looking at the structure in place," he stressed.
For his part, Nana Amoasi VII said given that most of the bottling pants were ready, the CRM was good to go, adding that the Goil bottling plant was in a good position to start operation.
Nana Amoasi VII, however, observed that the bottling area was in the right shape, but noted that the conveyor belt was made up of metal instead of rubber.
He urged the company to speed up the test run of the facility to ensure smooth operations.
In her submission during an engagement with market traders in Accra, the President of the Greater Accra Market Traders, Ms Mercy Naa Afrowa Nii Djan, described the CRM as a superb programme that would ensure safety in the distribution chain and also avoid cheating.
Besides, she said the CRM was expected to create more jobs for the teeming youth in the distribution chain.
