The experts in environment sector have called on the Federal Government and others,as matter of urgency,to work assiduously towards making clean cooking accessible to over 140 millions of Nigerian households who are still using solid biomass fuel in the country.

Speaking at Workshop in Abuja, the Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development,Ewah Eleri hinted that 68.3 percent of the families are still cooking with firewood, which results to seventeen percent of national green house gas emissions.

Eleri explained that women bear the greatest health and time -poverty burden from indoor air pollution, and it has resulted to 95,300 estimated deaths yearly in Nigeria, calling for urgent strategically solutions to meet with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

He argued, though strong policy momentum now exists, yet clean cooking finance is held back by weak compliance readiness, regulatory bottlenecks fragmented coordination, sustainable performance-based revenue and low investor confidence in the sector.

“Now complete turning momentum into investable, bankable action. Today’s workshop turns a completed assessment into shared commitment, validating the evidence, agreeing the priorities and settling the actions needed to mobilise financing and scale clean cooking access for millions of households.”

Another resources person, Basil Obasi of Partnership for Agile Governance and Climate Engagement,PACE, argued that over 72 percent of households used firewood as primary cooking fuel, which is the highest rate among comparable African economies.

Similarly, he disclosed that charcoal accounts for thirteen,13, percent of fuel use, concentrated in per-urban areas where electrification has partially reduced a firewood access, saying,this is Nigeria’s clean cooking crisis and cooking fuel costs $1.4 billion annual economic loss.