Poor energy: Women processing garri, palm oil face smoke, fire hazards in Benue

• Air pollution kills 4.3m yearly, experts warn

• Community efforts on electricity access stunted

• High cost of diesel increasing food prices

With a baby strapped to her back, Mrs Onyeka Audu would stop at nothing to ensure that her two basins of garri are processed in the fiery, smoke-emitting furnace. When the smoke becomes intense, Onyeka finds someone to hold her baby, while she, along with other women, continue ‘frying’ their garri in frying pans heated on fire.

“This is our means of earning income to support our families. We have to use firewood for the kind of heat we need because we lack electricity and modern renewable energy,” she said.

This is the story of not just Mrs Audu but scores of women who embrace the tough job of using firewood to process garri and palm oil across several communities in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State. It was estimated to have 237,000 people, according to the National Population Commission (NPC) in 2016. Women form 49 per cent of the population, and men are 51 per cent. The entire state has a population of 5.742million.

Over 95m Nigerians without electricity – Report

Although Nigeria subscribes to Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) pushing for access to energy for all by 2030, a World Bank Group report in April 2021 placed her as the country with the highest population without electricity.

“Nigeria now has 25 per cent more unelectrified people than the second most unelectrified country (DR Congo – in absolute terms). Regionally, only the South West has access to over 50 per cent (except Kano),” the global bank stated.

Earlier, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) had estimated that nearly 100million Nigerians from a population of over 200m did not have access to electricity, a situation that is further fuelling poverty.

The REA is a federal government’s agency driving access to electricity in Nigeria. However, its Rural Electrification Strategy and Implementation Plan (RESIP) released in 2017 stated, “It is estimated that only 36 per cent of the rural population have access to electricity, and 95million Nigerians do not have access to electricity.” 

Of this amount in Nigeria, 64 per cent live in rural areas, and even those with access have limited availability of energy.

Daily Trust on Sunday confirmed further from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2018 NDHS) by the National Population Commission (NPC) that majority of those who do not have access to electricity are in the rural areas. In these Benue communities, only the main Ugbokolo town is connected to grid. There are scores of nearby communities not connected.

Women and children most affected by use of solid fuel

According to findings across seven communities visited in Benue State – Ihem, Okonobo, Odessassa, Mabe, Aikpla, Effoyo and Okpoga in Okpokwu Local Government Area, more women engage in oil palm and garri processing than their male counterparts.

Ms Kate Onche, a resident of Ihem community, some five kilometres away, explained the link between the process of making garri and the use of firewood.

According to her, to produce a 50 kilogramme bag of garri, about two basins in measure, a large quantity of cassava is required to be peeled, grinded and dewatered.

“But the main process where the firework comes in is its frying. We usually have to fetch enough firewood to run this process of sitting and stirring the garri on a hot frying pan for over six hours to make three to five basins,” the young school leaver noted.

Mary Adoga, a palm oil processor in Aikpla community, explained how lack of electricity affected producers.

“It is something we often do. We need a lot of firewood to boil the palm fruits in drums, crush it and more fire to refine the oil,” she said.

On its gains and effects, she said she feds her three children with the proceeds after losing her husband five years ago.

“We face itchy eyes, headache and running nose from exposure to fire, but they are often mild and goes away after taking meditions,” Adoga noted.

Paul Olomu, a student, said she usually got hurtful and teary eyes from exposure to smoke, adding, “Catarrh is also something we battle every time because if you are exposed to fire and smoke you will always see that along with cough occasionally.”

Odessassa town, where the Afor market is located, a whole section, which also houses Senator Abba Moro, representing Zone C in the state, has had a bad transformer with outage lasting for 15 months. This has caused chaos for garri and palm oil processors who were adopting modern electric-powered machines to drive some processes earlier.

While few of the producers said they relied on diesel to run these machines, majority of the women said they relied on manual and firewood- driven processes.

“If you are producing in subsistence quantities your production cost will be more, using diesel machines. For us, we have to face the fire and smoke because that is the most affordable process so far,” noted Alice Igoh, a producer in Odessassa.

The World Health Organisation’s July 2022 factsheet on air pollution and health underlines that 32 per cent of air pollution-related deaths are from ischaemic heart disease: 12 per cent of all deaths due to ischaemic heart disease, accounting for over a million premature deaths annually, can be attributed to exposure to household air pollution; 23 per cent of deaths are from stroke: approximately 12 per cent of all deaths due to stroke can be attributed to the daily exposure to household air pollution arising from using solid fuels and kerosene at home; 21 per cent of deaths are due to lower respiratory infection: exposure to household air pollution almost doubles the risk for childhood LRI and is responsible for 44 per cent of all pneumonia deaths in children less than five years old.  

Household air pollution is a risk for acute lower respiratory infections in adults and contributes to 22 per cent of all adult deaths due to pneumonia;

19 per cent of deaths are from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): 23 per cent of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adults in low – and middle-income countries are due to exposure to household air pollution; 6 per cent are from lung cancer: approximately 11 per cent of lung cancer deaths in adults are attributable to exposure to carcinogens from household air pollution caused by using kerosene or solid fuels like wood, charcoal or coal for household energy needs.

Nigeria’s specific research on the effect of solid fuel use on childhood mortality also indicates that approximately 0.8 per cent of neonatal deaths, 42.9 per cent of post-neonatal deaths and 36.3 per cent of child deaths could be attributed to use of solid fuels.

A publication by Kingsley Ezeh, Kingsley Agho and a team of researchers from University of Western Sydney, Australia, examined evidence from the 2013 cross-sectional household survey.

Energy inequality driving high production costs, food prices

Many garri producers in Aikpla village also rely on diesel-powered cassava grinder, with the cost of grinding 50kg volume rising this year by over 100 per cent due to hike in diesel prices, noted Joseph Ochigbo, a miller.

“From about N300 per litre of diesel earlier this year, users now struggle to buy it at N1000/litre as black market because there is no filling station that sells diesel in the entire Ugbokolo axis.

“Some of us had to retrofit our machines to petrol, but even at that, the price is N220/per litre and above,” Ochigbo lamented about the energy crisis rocking his community.

From an estimate given by Odachi John, a resident of Okonobo community, it would cost about N3,000 worth of firewood to process a bag of garri, which would sell about N15,000. One would have to spend at least N1,000 for the diesel-fuel cassava grinding in the absence of electricity, another N500 for the manual dewatering; renting of the frying pan and hiring a hand for the frying could take another N1,000. From this estimate, the production cost is about two third of the expected sales price, with energy cost taking nearly 70 per cent of the production cost.

John said she was able to buy a motorcycle and put on hire purchase from her garri business. “My gain was that last year, I bought a motorcycle at N350,000; someone is riding it and is repaying for 18 months. I could earn N150,000 once payment is complete and I will buy another one.”

Mercy Paul of Mabe village noted that the cost of firewood could take 20 per cent of the production cost, adding, “We are now faced with the challenge of buying firewood because the trees around our farms are becoming exhausted due to the activities of wood sawyers. People who still cut portions of trees by sawmillers sell to us on their farms.”

Experts warn that air pollution kills 4.3m yearly as firewood use aids deforestation, degrading environment and raising flood risk.

The testimonials of victims of solid fuel usage in the Benue communities largely indicate that Nigeria has a significant percentage in the 4.3million estimated to die prematurely every year from illnesses attributable to household air pollution, according to the World Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (WLPGA) 2021 report.

The report further stated that air pollution, mostly in developing countries, is as a result of inefficient use of solid fuels and kerosene for cooking.

“These avoidable health risks and death disproportionately affect women and children – the ones collecting solid fuel and cooking with it,” the report stated.

The WLPGA report, which also cited survey results of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that indoor air pollution was the 10th leading cause of avoidable deaths worldwide.

“Black carbon or soot is responsible for an estimated 20 per cent global warming,” stated WLPGA chief advocacy officer, Michael Kelly in Abuja in September 2022.

The clean cooking energy advocacy group noted that the LPG is clean burning fuel and its use produces virtually no particular matter or soot. But Nigeria is still far behind, with less than 40 per cent clean cooking energy rate.

In 2018, the NPC surveyed 41,000 people, including women across urban and rural areas in Nigeria and the result on affordable clean energy showed that 81.7 per cent of them in urban areas have access to electricity while only 37.1 per cent of people in the rural areas have access to electricity.

The NDHS report also captured exposure to smoke inside the home from either cooking with solid fuels or smoking tobacco, which is at 69 per cent for households that use some type of solid fuel for cooking, with 61 per cent using wood.

Exposure to cooking smoke is greater when cooking takes place inside the house rather than in a separate building or outdoors. In 40 per cent of households, cooking is done in the house (48 per cent in urban areas and 34 per cent in rural areas). Overall, only 15 per cent of households in Nigeria use clean fuel for cooking, 27 per cent in urban areas and 4 per cent in rural areas.

Some experts also lent their voices to strategies for tackling household air pollution. When contacted, the director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, said exposure to solid fuel often resulted in breathing difficulty and airborne diseases across communities.

“The release of soot by burning firewood, grass, kerosine, and even plastics in some cases to make fire for processing anything is unhealthy for the people during the process and also for the produce. Like I always said, workers should wear protective kits, but getting kits for women who are only trying to make a living is another challenge,” he said.

On his part, Michael Okoh, the convener, Nigerian Power Consumers Forum (NPCF), flayed the government for poor electrification in the state. He noted that exposure to firewood use by the women has implications on deforestation which drives climate change.

“Benue is a mix of savannah and rain forest; if the trees and the natural habitat continually get destroyed, we may see more cases of flooding. We must do everything to discourage deforestation by championing clean cooking energy,” Mr Okoh said.

Community efforts on electricity stunted  

There are some communities that have made efforts to connect to electricity grid but are hindered by poor cooperation from the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED Plc).

A community leader in Ihem village, Michael Ajefu, an engineer, explained the efforts at getting connected for over two years.

“We had to raise funds through the community development group and bought wooden poles for the electrification of the Ihem-Effa community. We could not afford to buy cables spanning about four kilometres or so, and we have been calling on officials of Jos DisCo to intervene because that is their role,” Ajefu noted.

Mr Solomon Angbo, one of the leaders in Odessassa town, said the transformer outage was reported to Jos DisCo, which has a service centre, but nothing has been done as officials said it had to be replaced.

“The officials said it’s a huge task involving the JED headquarters in Jos over the replacement. The community has two transformers; that of Aokpe road is functional but the one around Ebute road went bad in July 2021,” he explained.

The community leaders also called on Senator Abba Moro, whose senatorial zone covers the communities, to intervene in ensuring access to electricity to further boost the economy of the local government.

Poor electrification despite multibillion budget

The Benue State Government, led by Governor Samuel Ortom, may have budgeted and perhaps released over N30billion on capital projects involving works, transport and energy in the past five years. While details of these spending on electrification are scanty, the little information available shows that most of the spending could have gone for road construction rather than rural electrification.

According to the Benue State capital expenditure appropriation act for 2022, out of the N56.819billion for the fiscal year, the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology (current name) got N781,770million.

In 2021, the ministry got N732.6m capital funding; the entire state capital budget was N48.5bn.

However, the state, according to the 2021 appropriation act, said it spent N1.529bn on power in the fiscal year but did not provide where the projects were executed.

In 2020, the state had a N74.93bn capital budget but details could not be found. In 2019, it budgeted N90.4bn for capital spending with N14.4bn dedicated to the ministry, which was then known as Works, Transport and Energy. Out of this, none went for rural electrification as road construction gulped the entire budget.

In 2018, the Ministry of Works, Transport and Energy got N17.708bn out of a N114bn estimated capital funding for the state.

Gov’t must push harder for access to electricity – CSOs

The place of electricity in driving business and gender equality is crucial, said officials of civil society organisations (CSOs) in separate reactions to enquiries by Daily Trust on Sunday.

The executive director of Community Links and Human Empowerment Initiative (CLHEI), Dr Helen Teghtegh, blamed all the levels of government for not taking responsibility enough to provide electricity.

“The issue of power is not about the federal or state government helping, it is about them taking responsibility. First, how many communities have electricity. Most live in gross darkness, no electric poles etc. This in itself is a failure from the government side,” she said.

Also speaking, the Benue State coordinator for Women Environmental Programme (WEP), Ukange Ichivirbee, said the energy sector remained one of the industries with a wide gender gap globally, noting that the gender parity is more in Nigeria. 

He said, “The energy poverty in Benue, especially in rural communities, is the worst. There is a gender gap in access to and affordability of energy, a gender gap in the energy labour market and a gender gap in participation in energy decision-making.”

He said coal and rice husk could substitute firewood use. “This is in a bid to provide clean cooking options for rural women as well as save the environment from cutting down trees for fuel wood.”

“We are driving an awareness campaign in rural areas to enlighten women and men on the dangers of firewood and alternative cooking options.”

Benue commissioners, senator, DisCo official recount efforts

Our reporter reached out to respective officials of the state and Jos DisCo over their efforts on accelerating access to energy in the state.

The commissioner for energy, science and technology, Mrs Jane Ogoma, was not available but directed the director of energy, Titus Ordam, an engineer, to provide response to enquiries by Daily Trust on Sunday.

Ordam said his office did not implement electricity projects directly. He, however, clarified a N1.5bn captured in the 2021 budget for power in the state, saying, “As for the N1.5bn project, it is actually the federal government intervention, but the loan has not yet come to us.”

Meanwhile, the commissioner for rural development and cooperatives, Victor Ukaha, said the ministry had done much in electrification, but did not provide details of these projects.

On his part, the senator representing Benue South, Abba Moro, said he had done a lot on electricity in the zone in the last three years.

Reacting to the bad Ugbokolo transformer near his home, the senator said, “The transformer in Ugbokolo has since been replaced; what is left is for it to be powered,” adding that Jos DisCo was responsible for that.

Reacting to the lack of cooperation of Jos DisCo with community residents to provide access to electricity, the regional manager, Otukpo region of the JEDC, Olaniyi Oluwole, an engineer, denied receiving any formal request.

“There is no information concerning the request and no official letter to us from such an anonymous community or communities yet,” he said.

This report was facilitated by the Africa Centre for Development Journalism (ACDJ) under its Inequality Reporting Fellowship, supported by the MacArthur Foundation.