The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the purchase of N9.2bn worth of cooking stoves and ‘wonder bags’ for rural women under the National Clean Cooking Scheme.
Wonder bag is 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. The council also awarded a contract of N60.9bn to an indigenous firm, KaKatar CE Limited, for the provision of engineering infrastructure for Kyami District, Zone C, in Abuja.
The Supervising Minister of Information, Dr. Nurudeen Muhammed, and his counterparts in the environment ministry and the Federal Capital Territory, Mrs. Lawrecia Mallam and Bala Muhammed respectively, briefed State House correspondents at the end of FEC, which was presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo. Muhammed said the 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. He said the stoves were expected to be delivered by Messrs Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited within a period of 12 weeks.
Muhammed noted that the stoves, to be assembled locally, would provide jobs for Nigerians, among other benefits. The minister said, “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.
“Furthermore, additional benefit to Nigeria in switching over to this technology by the rural households is the carbon credits arising from the registration by the UNFCCC. The country stands to gain 50 per cent subsidy of the price through the generated carbon credits.” He added that the government would be above aboard in distributing the items to ensure that political consideration was not considered in determining the beneficiaries. He explained further that all women groups in the country were involved in the scheme from conception to the level of awarding the contract. He said the instrumentalities of the participating groups would be used to distribute the items.
Shedding more light on the contract, the Minister of Environment said in deciding the rural women that would benefit from the free stoves, the government would give preference to the about two million female farmers that are currently procuring fertilisers through e-wallet and another two million women already registered by a non-governmental organisation. She described cooking with firewood as a silent killer hence the need for the government to come to the aid of the rural women.
