The Federal Government on Monday said that it would lift no fewer than one hundred million Nigerians out of poverty through the implementation of National Gas Expansion Programme.

The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who spoke in Owerri, the Imo State capital, at the opening ceremony of the NGEP consultative forum, said that the Federal Government was committed to giving jobs to millions of young Nigerians.

He said, “Counting the impacts of the programme on our socioeconomic space within the first year of its launching, the administration further stepped up its commitment to industrialising Nigeria through gas utilisation by declaring year 2021 to 2030 ‘Decade of Gas’.

“With proven gas reserves of over 200 million cubic feet and natural gas presents an opportunity for the nation to use gas as the catalyst for its socio economic renaissance.”

The minister lauded the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, whom he said had played a major role in projecting the NGEP.

Sylva, a former governor of Bayalsa State, expressed hope that the programme would have positive effect on the economy of the country.

Uzodimma represented by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Paul Emeziem, said the state would continue to partner the Federal Government in its efforts to provide more jobs to the teeming youths of the country.