How to prioritise inclusion in Nigeria’s clean cooking goals

There is something special about this year’s National Clean Cooking Forum, which was held in Abuja, last week, from October 9 to 10, with the theme “Clean Cooking for All in Nigeria: Prioritising Inclusion”. It is the first NCCF after Nigeria achieved a milestone this March, when the clean cooking policy was approved by the Federal Executive Council, setting the nation on the path towards achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2030; after which the government set up an implementation committee made up of key stakeholders from government, private sector and civil society.

At the event, the Minister of Environment, Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, disclosed that the government has allocated 5 billion Naira in the 2025 budget specifically for the execution of the policy. One is at a loss as to how the government will open more frontiers in delivering clean cooking solutions to citizens considering their dwindling purchasing power. Truly, despite advancements in promoting cleaner cooking technologies, recent trends indicate a concerning regression, with many households reverting to traditional polluting fuels. This reversal is largely driven by the rising costs of cleaner alternatives, such as liquefied petroleum gas or cooking gas, which has become increasingly unaffordable for a significant segment of the population.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, Ewah Eleri, stressed the urgent need for the Clean Cooking Implementation Committee to expedite the rollout of the National Clean Cooking Policy. He highlighted that substantial progress in expanding clean cooking access in Nigeria hinges on the decentralisation of actions, calling for a greater focus on state and local governments. Eleri further stressed the critical need for the Nigerian government to develop resilient, long-term financing strategies for the sector, advocating for a shift away from dependency on international development partners.

He said, “We need to see concrete action. While the committee is made up of stakeholders at the national level, action needs to be taken at the grassroots.”
I totally agree with the urgent need to target key actions at the grassroots level. Here lies the key to unlocking the door for achieving the yearning of stakeholders, who argue that transitioning from imported stoves to locally manufactured ones would strengthen Nigeria’s clean cooking industry, generate jobs, and stimulate economic growth. To be sure, two of the forum’s key outcomes are the call for increased domestic production of clean cooking stoves, and the demand for greater government support for private businesses manufacturing clean cooking stoves.

There is no overemphasising the fact that without a deliberate adjustment of the domestic cooking energy sub-sector, the populace will continually be endangered. One of the leading sources of Household Air Pollution is the use of solid fuels and kerosene in traditional, inefficient, and simple stoves such as open fires, which leads to the emission of large amounts of pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and oxygenated and chlorinated organic compounds. Authoritative research has established that open-fire smoke kills 77,000 Nigerians annually. Lower Respiratory infections such as pneumonia and acute bronchitis have been the greatest contributors to HAP-related deaths in Africa.

In some parts of the continent, acute lower respiratory infections are considered the second largest cause of death and are linked to 26 percent of all deaths reported in hospitals in the reported zones. Other diseases linked to HAP exposure include ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stroke. Still, the most important point to note is that the traditional ways of cooking are wasteful, with 90 per cent more wood burned than needed for cooking heat. In this way, they escalate environmental hazards, as harvesting wood causes deforestation and climate change.
Nevertheless, I believe Nigeria is gradually finding itself out of the woods. The recent Supreme Court judgement which empowered the country’s third tier of government, the Local Government, with autonomy, is a milestone in our journey in democratic governance. It will engender a conducive political atmosphere for the growth of the country’s teeming grassroots population, effectively enhancing good governance and democratic decentralization in the polity.
For the sake of those who missed the news, on July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment affirming the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Councils in the country. It was handed down by the seven-justice panel of the apex court in the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, ruling that the councils should independently manage their funds.

Essentially, this will enable local governments to make decisions and take action without needing approval from state governments, which hitherto denied them their fiscal dues, especially from the monthly Federal Allocations. These liberated councils can now collect revenues, manage their finances, allocate resources to specific rural areas, and prioritize projects that promote grassroots development, without state government interference. In other words, local government council chairmen now have the legal enablement and financial power to help Nigeria push through to its goal of achieving universal access to clean cooking energy solutions for households and institutions by 2030. Think about it, in which part of the country’s areas (rural or urban) do people cook more with wood and kerosene?

My take is that there should be a deliberate effort to mainstream the local government authorities in the National Clean Cooking Policy implementation. It is interesting that the Clean Cooking Alliance already has it in its partnership action plan. The CCA works towards connecting the local clean cookstove buyers to the local cookstove sellers. It connects the Local Governments, politicians, and leaders to the large-scale dealers of clean cookstoves. Importantly, it has its eye set on encouraging these local government stakeholders to develop subsidizing schemes to make these cookstoves more affordable to their people. This means that the Nigerian Clean Cooking Alliance, which is the local driving engine of the Policy, has its job already cut out.

Indeed, now is the time to swing into action. With all the states of the Federation presently falling over themselves to conduct local government council elections, in line with the Local Government Autonomy law, we must ensure that after swearing-in, the new local government council chairmen and ward councilors tow the path of Clean Cooking Energy for All. Domestic energy for cooking is at the core of grassroots welfare, and there should be no excuse for failure. The new 774 local governments, plus six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory, should explore new ideas for partnerships and rural support.

For instance, microfinance banking and other financial inclusion mechanisms should be redirected towards green banking principles to serve as vehicles for the implementation of the new clean cooking policy.

Local government serves as a platform for broadening and fostering inclusive politics and rural development. At a time when climate change has become a spectre of woes in our national life, the issue of environmental stewardship should be at the core of the value deliverables. Therefore, all stakeholders in the clean cooking value chain should prioritize education and training to deepen the culture of inclusion within the local government. Families should be exposed to the clean cooking solutions in the market, and become familiar with the financial options and technical interventions for upscaling them. Rural schools, hospitals, markets, and similar public institutions should become practical platforms for various interfaces.
In this way, diversity and inclusion would go beyond mere buzzwords, to become essential components for effective governance and community engagement. Nigeria must join other nations to shoot towards the mark of the relevant clean cooking-related Sustainable Development Goals; good health and well-being (goal 3), gender equality (goal 5), affordable and clean energy (goal 7), climate action (goal 13), and life on land (goal 15).