By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Federal Ministry of Environment on Tuesday kicked off the Nigerian Institutional Clean Cooking Acceleration Scheme (NICCAS), with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and the German Government within the framework of the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP).
The NICCAS intervention seeks to promote institutional clean cookstoves in Nigeria with a focus on LPG-based cookstoves.
The outcomes of a baseline study and the planned awareness campaign to accelerate the LPG clean cooking adaptation in the country were presented at a one-day stakeholder awareness workshop held in Abuja on Tuesday.
Participants at the workshop were informed that about two billion people globally rely on biomass fuels for cooking t food which leads to deforestation, increased carbon dioxide emissions as well as health problems such as
respiratory tract infections and cancer.
NICCAS aims at reducing these negative impacts by distributing clean cookstoves and thus reducing Nigeria’s dependence on fossil fuels as well as ensuring the preservation of the ecosystem and environment.
In her remarks, Deputy Director (Climate Change) of FMEnv, Mrs. Iniobong Abiola-Awe expressed
the commitment of the the ministry to implementing the FGN’s programme of converting 30 million households
from using biomass fuels to LPG.
According to her, “this intervention is a step in the right direction as it will ensure that our agro-processor groups and small businesses join the quest for a cleaner and healthier environment. It further will contribute to achieve our set climate target under the Nationally Determined Contributions”.
Also speaking, the Team Leader, Green and Digital Economy at the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Inga Stefanowicz, said that the intervention would be of immense benefit to the clean cooking sector and
the population of the country.
“We are glad to support the Nigerian government in promoting LPG-based institutional cooking. This intervention will reduce immensely the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and combat negative health effects as a result of using conventional cooking methods,” she said.
The NICCAS intervention started with a nationwide open competitive tender by the FMEnv with support from
NESP in June 2019, in which SOSAI Renewable Energies Company resulted as winner.
Speaking on the next steps Mr. Duke Benjamin, Head of NESP, disclosed that the NESP will support the selected winner of clean cooking scheme.
According to him, “NESP will provide technical assistance to SOSAI in deploying institutional LPG-based clean cookstoves in around 600 MSME in the three pilot states Bauchi, Kaduna and Niger. Additionally, we will support the production of marketing materials, to encourage the use of clean cookstoves among food processors,“ he explained.
The Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) is a technical assistance programme co-funded by the
European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and
implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with
the Federal Ministry of Power.
It aims to foster investments in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector and to promote access to electricity in rural areas.
