FG approves the purchase of N9.2bn cooking stoves for rural women

The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved the
purchase of N9.2bn worth of cooking stoves and ‘wonder
bags’ for rural women under the National Clean Cooking
Scheme.
Speaking with state house correspondence after the FEC
meeting, the Supervising Minister of Information, Dr.
Nurudeen Muhammed said the scheme which is a federal
government initiative, is geared towards reducing the use of
firewood among rural women in Nigeria.
"The National Clean Cooking Scheme is an aggressive
drive to engender clean cooking culture amongst the
poor rural women, to reduce and possibly eliminate
cooking with solid fossil which is detrimental to health.
The scheme is expected to provide 20 million clean
stoves over a five-year period at the rate of four million
stoves per annum, which will be distributed free of
charge. It will also reduce incessant felling of trees,
which exposes the country to ecological problems” he
said.
The Minister said N9.2bn, inclusive of Value Added Tax, was
approved for the procurement of 750,000 units of clean
cooking stoves and 18,000 wonder bags, a non-electric slow
cooker invented by Sarah Collins, a South African eco-
entrepreneur, who came up with the idea of surrounding the
pan with cushions six years ago during a power cut in her
country.
He said the stoves were expected to be delivered by Messrs
Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited within a period of
12 weeks.
Minister of Environment Mrs. Lawrecia Mallam who also
spoke on the initiative, said the government decided to
purchase the cooking stoves for the rural women because it
considers cooking with firewood a silent killer.

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