The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) has ramped up campaigns for clean cook solutions by providing many clean cookstoves to help rural women improve cooking for sustainable energy development and to minimise the impacts of climate change.
The director general and CEO of the ECN, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, made this known in his remarks during the opening ceremony of a two-day Gender-Sensitisation Training Workshop on Adoption of Clean Cooking Solutions( Clean Cookstoves) for sustainable Energy Development for women in Maraba, Nasarawa State on Wednesday.
The ECN boss noted that the commission is entrusted with the vital task of planning and coordinating energy policy for Nigeria’s sustainable development, adding that the workshop signified a crucial step towards addressing energy challenges through a gender-sensitive lens.
The ECN director general had flagged off the nationwide campaign of clean cook solutions in early March to empower rural women with the new technology that will also help them cut costs.
He said during the workshop that “we recognize the pivotal role that clean cooking solutions play in not only ensuring access to safe and sustainable energy but also in empowering women and promoting gender equality. In many households, particularly in rural areas, women bear the primary responsibility for cooking using traditional methods that often pose serious health risks and environmental hazards.
“Through the adoption of clean cookstoves, we aim to mitigate these challenges, improve health outcomes, reduce environmental degradation, and enhance the socio- economic well-being of women and their families.”
He stressed that the workshop served as a platform for knowledge exchange, capacity building, and collaborative action towards promoting the widespread adoption of clean cooking solutions tailored to the needs and realities of women who bear the brunt of air pollution from the traditional method of cooking.
The director general of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii in his remarks, said the adoption of the technology will improve efficiency, drive progress and immunise the effects of climate change.
Represented by Odorenyi Etim, Assistant Chief Enterprise Officer of the agency, Mr Odii said it SMEDAN has numerous programmes targeted towards Women-led businesses, which includes – One Local Government, one product (Olop), “designed with the overall objective of delivering an Upgraded Capacity (human, technological and financial) to selected viable Co-operative Societies, with the view to Improve their productivity and quality of products to achieve standards.”
He said that the second programme is about the Women in self-employment programme (WISE P), an Initiative designed basically to promote self- reliance amongst women in order to achieve improved productivity and Sustainability in agricultural businesses in terms of Crop farming and agro processing along the value chain and to boost production of raw materials for industrial use and development among others.
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