Nigeria: Market Women Seek Gov’t Support to Provide Cheap Cooking Stoves
The President-General, Abuja Market Women Association of Nigeria, Mrs Felicia Sanni, has appealed to the Federal Government to make available clean cooking stoves at a subsidised rate.
Sanni told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja, on Tuesday, that cooking with firewood had a negative effect on the health of women, particularly their sight.
“What firewood does is better imagined than said.’’
“So, we are appealing to the Federal Government to make clean cooking stoves available and affordable; we are not saying they should dash us.
“No market woman believes in dash; there is nowhere in the world that government provides such facilities free of charge.
“Even in the United States, they still buy; so government should provide it for us at a cheaper rate.’’
The president said that the association had been partnering with the Federal Ministry of Environment to sensitise market women on the need to embrace clean cooking energy.
She said she had observed that cooking with gas which people considered to be expensive, was cheaper in the long run, because of the health advantage.
“We want to carry the awareness to our rural women to tell them that the firewood that they think is cheaper, is not cheaper at all because of the damaging effect.
“If we see people smoking cigarette, we laugh at them but if you are using firewood, smoke is entering your eyes, lungs, heart and other parts of your body.
“It is even better you smoke 280 packages of cigarette at a time than to cook with firewood because of the health implications,’’ she said.
According to her, the association will take the campaign to all the 36 states of the federation, to create awareness on the negative consequences of using firewood.
She said that the national campaign had been launched in Abuja, adding that they would use the network of market women to step up the campaign in rural areas.
NAN reported that the national campaign tagged “Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES)’’ project’ was launched by the Federal Ministry of Environment in December 2013.
The lighting component of RUWES seeks to ensure affordable and sustainable clean energy access to the rural people and reducing black carbon emissions.