About 67% of Nigerian households still use fuelwood to cook, EQ has gathered. This was reported in the maiden edition of the Nigeria Residential Energy Demand Survey Report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.

According to the report, 40.7% of these households buy their fuelwood, 39.0% chop it themselves, and 18.9% get it through other means.

These numbers don’t exactly scream progress when compared to Nigeria’s goals under the Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL) initiative and the 2021 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the Paris Agreement.

The intention was to cut traditional firewood use by 50% by 2020 and 80% by 2030, while promoting cleaner options like improved cookstoves and LPG (cooking gas).

In its 2021 NDC target, Nigeria is set to have 48% of the population cooking with LPG and 13% using improved stoves by 2030. But the available figures are a far cry from that target.

Per the report, Sokoto State leads in fuelwood buying, with 71.2% of households forking out cash to buy wood. On the other hand, Bauchi tops the list of states where people prefer to cut and collect fuelwood themselves, with a whopping 65.4% going the do-it-yourself route.

READ ALSO: Costly Cooking Gas Drives Nigerians to Charcoal, Alternatives

N9 Billion for Clean Cooking: A Missed Opportunity?

Nigeria has tried to fix this problem before. Back in 2014, the Federal Executive Council approved a hefty N9.2 billion to fund clean stoves through the National Clean Cooking Scheme (NCCS), according to a Premium Times report.

The idea was to distribute 750,000 clean cookstoves and 18,000 Wonder Bags to households across the country to curb deforestation.

But things did not go as planned. By 2015, the government hit the pause button due to issues with the contractor as reported by Channels Television. According to Fatima Mede, the Minister of Environment at the time, there were concerns that the number of stoves supplied was far below expectations.

The National Assembly also got in on the action with its own clean cooking initiative in 2014, but there’s little to show for it. Neither the executive nor the legislature followed through.

The Rising Cost of LPG Is Keeping Nigerians Stuck on Fuelwood

One major reason for the slow adoption of cleaner cooking methods is the rising cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The average household spends around N10,681 monthly on fuelwood, according to the report.

Plateau State households top the spending charts at N18,803 per month, while Sokoto residents spend the least, at just N7,073.

Fuelwood might not be great for the environment, but it is a lot cheaper than cooking gas. EQ recently reported how the price of 5kg of LPG jumped from N4,360 to N6,699 in just one year.

If the inflation trend is anything to go by, there are chances that cooking gas gets costlier. Nigeria is bound to lose more forest and people to cooking this way.

The Environment Also Takes a Hit

Nigeria’s reliance on fuelwood is doing serious damage to the environment. Per the energy report, nearly half (49.6%) of all fuelwood is collected from natural forests. This only worsens Nigeria’s deforestation problem.

The UN-REDD programme reported that Nigeria has been losing forests at a rate of 3.5-3.7% per year. This translates to around 350,000–400,000 hectares annually. The Global Forest Watch estimates that Nigeria lost 86,700 hectares of tropical forest between 2010 and 2019. At this rate, Nigeria may lose all of its forest cover by 2060.

Health Risks and Safety Concerns of Cooking with Firewood

There’s more than just the environment at stake. The survey found that 16.7% of households that collect fuelwood suffer negative consequences, including health problems, injuries, violence and even kidnappings.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), cooking with firewood, charcoal or traditional stoves causes 500,000 African women to die prematurely every year.

In Nigeria alone, 98,000 women die annually from using these cooking methods, with the Niger Delta accounting for 21,000 of those deaths, according to a report by The Punch.

READ MORE: Desirable But Expensive: Nigeria’s Clean Energy Dilemma

A Glimmer of Hope? Maybe

In 2022, Nigeria set up the National Clean Cooking Committee to bring all efforts under one roof.

This led to the creation of a clean cooking policy aimed at reaching net-zero emissions by 2060. The policy was ratified in May.

According to a report by The Guardian, the Federal Government has allocated N5 billion in the 2025 budget for clean cooking programmes.

The committee also runs a National Clean Cooking Forum that gathers stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society committed to implementing the objectives of the policy. Whether these stakeholders will commit to execution is still uncertain.
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