“Influx of refurbished cylinders hinders implementation of cylinder Recirculation Module”

The huge influx of refurbished cylinders in the Ghanaian market has been identified as a major impediment to the implementation of the Cylinder Recirculation Module (CRM) policy.

The CRM module is an LPG marketing model that involves filling LPG cylinders at large refilling plants and then supplying the filled cylinders to consumers at specialised retail outlets called exchange points. Consumers exchange their empty cylinders for a filled one at the exchange point.

Carlo Zeitounian, General Manager of Sigma Ghana, a multi-national company involved in the manufacturing of cylinders, said the refurbished cylinders which come through the known and unknown points of entry were often labelled as scrap not intended to be sold to consumers.

Although cheaper, he said the refurbished cylinders have not been duly certified by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and do not conform to the requisite health and safety standards required.

Speaking in Accra yesterday during the tour of officials of the Ministry of Energy and National Petroleum Authority (NPA) at the company’s facilities, he said the danger the use of refurbished cylinders posed to Ghanaians and their families were irreversible.

The newly renovated facilities of the company come with 4 ISO certification and production capacity of 1.2 million cylinders per year.

The visit was to enable the ministry and NPA familiarise themselves with the operations of the company and ensuring that the cylinders produced are of the highest quality and safe for Ghanaians.

He therefore called on all relevant government stakeholders including lawmakers, regulators, security services, and Ghanaians to work in unison towards ridding the market of all sub-standard refurbished cylinders.

In view of the rollout of the policy, he said, Sigma Ghana had attained product certification from the GSA for its Sigma Cylinders and was currently running a safety awareness campaign nationwide about the quality and safety of cylinders.

Chief Executive of Sigma Cylinders, Jad Jaber mentioned that the key objectives of the CRM policy such as increased access to LPG, ensuring local contact and participation, ensuring sustainable supply, and ensuring the existence of robust and standard health, safety, and environmental practices in the production, which would help address the influx of substandard cylinders which cause harm to users.

He said the rehabilitation of the Sigma factory falls in line with the CRM policy since it would lead to an increase in demand for the number of cylinders in circulation.

He noted that the company was well-positioned to deliver high-quality LPG cylinders which are also affordable to the ordinary citizen.

BY TIMES REPORTER