The Federal Government has announced that it has approved the purchase of N9.2bn worth of cooking stoves and ‘wonder bags’ for rural women under the National Clean Cooking Scheme.
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.
This was made known by 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 while briefing 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.
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.”
Speaking 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.
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.
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