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Nigeria pushes for switch to clean cooking, despite energy market challenges
31/7/2024
8 min read
Feature
The release of a National Clean Cooking Policy in Nigeria in April 2024 is poised to impact the energy sector and environment of West Africa’s dominant country. Designed to offer clean cooking systems to the 30 million households in Nigeria that currently burn wood in their kitchens, it could transform the economy of Nigeria and West Africa, write Samuel Okocha, Andreia Nogueira and Keith Nuthall.
Nigeria has Africa’s largest population (218 million out of 1.2 billion continent-wide) and its largest economy (GDP of $477bn out of $3.1tn).
The new policy would see Nigerians end the inefficient and traditional burning of firewood using three-stone and metal tripod stoves, replacing it with better cooking technologies, of which LPG would be the most dominant, serving 54% of the population. This would be followed by biofuels (20%), fuel efficient biomass stoves (which could use firewood, but in a less polluting way; 13%), industrial briquettes (5%), electricity (5%) and biogas (3%).
The plan says the government should tell Nigerian LPG producers to prioritise supplying the domestic market, help smaller suppliers access LPG intervention funds, establish cylinder testing plants across Nigeria, and create LPG micro-distribution centres around residential areas. It also recommends expanding awareness campaigns on switching to LPG and mandating government institutions to use LPG for cooking. In addition, the plan suggests that the government should remove VAT on imported LPG and provide tax rebates for imported LPG cooking equipment.