Waiting for the 20 million clean cook stoves

A recent report from the Ministry of Environment shows that 95,300 women and children die annually from complications arising from the use of firewood in cooking.
On a global scale, more than three billion people still use firewood, coal and other traditional fuels inside their homes as their sources of energy and this has resulted in indoor air pollution causing over 1.5 million deaths annually.
Millions more suffer every day with difficulty in breathing, stinging eyes and chronic respiratory diseases.
It was based on this development that the federal government since 2013 started budgeting for the production and distribution of clean cook stoves to Nigerian women.
The plan of the government was to make available to Nigerian homes 20 million clean cook stove by the year 2020.
Engr. Bahijjahtu Abubakar, Head, Renewable Energy Unit of the Ministry of Environment noted recently at a meeting of the Rural Women Energy Security programme (RUWES) that the programme was born to expose women to clean cook stoves and also empower them through a business model.
She said that the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Environment to do something about the rising number of women dying from indoor air pollution led to the federal government setting up the national clean cooking scheme.
On RUWES she said: “It is about a business of saving life, selling clean cook stoves, solar lanterns and appliances so that women can stop using kerosene stoves and lanterns,” she said.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam said that it was a shame for any woman to die cooking for her household. “Just as we condemn women dying while giving life so also we condemn in strong terms any situation that will make women die while cooking for their household.”
She said that the federal government was working with other partners and organisations to make available 750,000 clean cook stoves to women in the next three months even as work is on schedule to meet the target of getting 20 million clean cook stoves to Nigerians within the next few years.
“The issue of death arising from firewood smoke is a thing of national emergency, and government is determined to overcome this development,” she added.
A former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Mrs. Rabi Jimeta, said women embark on many activities to make ends meet and should not die while cooking for their family.
“We must save our mothers and wives and all we are saying is no more smoking,” she said.
The RUWES programme is designed as a social business model that allows Nigerian women to learn skills to help themselves.
The women learn how to assemble clean cook stoves and solar lanterns as part of RUWES programme, after which they go back to their communities to start new skills and help other women to learn the business and by so doing they have a chain of distributors.
It has the target of creating an enabling environment where microfinance would be dominated by RUWES women. Participating women are taught how to develop their profit and project their market in their own space and generate income for their families and the skill they learn helps them build new confidence as a result of being financially independent while assisting their husbands at home and helping their kids to become better Nigerians.
“Nigerian women are now climate smart and energy wise, they know the energy choices and the effect each choice has on their health,” said Abubakar, who is also the Coordinator of RUWES.
“With the federal government and RUWES intervention, we can say confidently that Nigeria has provided over one million clean cook stoves to women and there is no country that has provided that much in one year,” he added.