Greenplinth signs $1.5b carbon credit agreement for 80m cookstoves

Greenplinth Africa, a pan-African green solutions corporation, has signed a $1.5 billion agreement for carbon credit for the funding of the 80 million Cookstoves Project targeted at distributing free clean cookstoves for Nigerian women and households.

The project is in collaboration with the federal and state governments as well as other local and international development organisations and it seeks to address climate change.

Speaking at the flag-off of the project, Chief Executive Officer of Greenplinth Africa, Olawale Akinkumi, noted that with an estimated 180 million Nigerians lacking access to clean-cooking fuels and technologies, the project aims to deploy clean cookstoves at no cost to the beneficiaries and drastically reduce the use of traditional firewood during cooking to over 90 per cent.

He added that the project involves the procurement, pre-fabrication, assembling and commissioning of highly efficient fuel wood cookstoves as well as the planting of four billion trees at 50 trees per cookstove by 2030.

Akinkumi stated that actualising the project would entail robust sensitisation campaigns and training of users mainly in households across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said: “It is the most efficient cooking stove that makes use of waste wood, unlike the regular cooking methods that use large chunks of firewood. It is going to be distributed for free to beneficiaries because it is being financed through carbon credit. We have signed a $1.5 billion agreement for carbon credit.”

National Coordinator of African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Nigeria, Gloria Akobundu, said the project was important to the health of Nigerian women who bear the brunt of using harmful cooking practices.

Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor on Climate Change and Circular Economy, Titilayo Oshodi, described the project as an important step towards improving health, empowering women and protecting the environment.

Executive Director, Financing Strategy, Greenplinth Africa, Godwin Njoku Nnabugwu, stressed the reality of climate change with the modified biomass cookstoves as a provided solution to mitigate it.