From Magnus Eze, Enugu
•Ebonyi Clean Cooking Forum
The price of cooking gas has been on the rise in Nigeria, a situation that further pushes more people especially rural women to use fuelwood for cooking in open fire.
But, the wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs. Uzoamaka Nwifuru has decried the development and instead vowed to tackle the cooking fuel challenges faced by women in the state.
She spoke at the just held Ebonyi State Clean Cooking Forum organised by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) in partnership with her office and the Ebonyi State Medium Enterprises Development Agency (EBSMEDA).
Mrs. Nwifuru noted that it was affecting the health of women, pledging to work with various arms of the State Government and the Chairmen of Local Government Areas to provide access to efficient wood and charcoal cookstoves for rural women.
Director General of the EBSMEDA, Dr Stephen Odo, emphasized the importance of local production of these efficient wood stoves in Ebonyi State: “Our agency is not only committed to solving the cooking energy problems of households in the state, we will work to training young people in the construction of these efficient cooking technologies, build small and medium sized enterprises, create new jobs and export clean cookstoves to other states.”
Executive Director of ICEED and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, Ewah Eleri, disclosed that 86 per cent of households in Ebonyi State use wood in open fire for their daily cooking: “With the current inflation in the prices of cooking gas and the unreliable supply of electricity, the demand for wood continues to soar. This has serious implications for the economy and health of families in the state. Already, the massive cutting of trees for fuelwood is leading to serious deforestation.”
In a goodwill message, Country Director, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Jochen Luckscheiter, stated that “while the debate on clean cooking has gotten renewed traction in the last few years, what we need to start seeing now is commitments that go beyond the verbal and translate into the real world, making a difference in the lives of people at the grassroots.”
The German Foundation had partnered the Ebonyi State Government to develop a state-level programme on clean cooking.
The Federal Government recently developed a national policy on clean cooking. Addressing the Forum, Director of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Iniobong Abiola-Awe, highlighted the importance of implementing the national policy in states: “As the country strives to meet its climate change obligations and the commitments made for long term carbon emission reduction, it is therefore imperative to have a joint collaborative effort with states in ensuring that Nigerian households convert from the use of inefficient cooking fuels such as fuelwood, charcoal and kerosene to LPG and other efficient cooking fuels.”
The forum brought together important stakeholders to commit to a common cause in implementing the Ebonyi State Clean Cooking Programme.