Zainab ADETOLA |
Summary of the Story
- Nigeria faces air pollution and deforestation due to cooking activities reliant on firewood and charcoal.
- Innovative solutions are being developed to address these issues.
- 81% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population uses wood and charcoal to cook.
- Cooking over open fires contributes to 3.2 million deaths annually.
- Nigeria has the highest rate of deforestation worldwide.
In Nigeria, a battle is raging against two formidable foes: air pollution and deforestation. The culprit? Cooking activities, dependent on firewood and charcoal.
Laura James, a business owner based in Lafia, Nasarawa State recalls her experience using a charcoal stove and how she would battle billowing smoke, coughing ceaselessly with watery eyes while cooking. At that time, she had no idea that her use of charcoal contributed to Nigeria’s deforestation problem but the health impact of the charcoal smoke on her lungs and eyes was a source of worry.
Then she attended a youth empowerment training for young people and learned about smokeless charcoal stoves and briquettes -cooking charcoal made from biochar- for the first time. She also learned that not only were her health concerns valid, her cooking choices also had an impact on the environment.
The Problem: Air Pollution and Deforestation
In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, some 950 million people- about 81 per cent of the population- are said to rely on wood and charcoal for cooking, a number which is estimated to grow to 1.67 billion by 2050. And a study conducted in 2020 showed that cooking over open fire, contributes to an estimated 3.2 million deaths annually.
Sadly, the production of charcoal also requires cutting down trees, contributing to Nigeria’s ranking as the country with the highest rate of deforestation across the world.
These were some of the data that inspired Peter Bassey, a recycling advocate and environmentalist to experiment with alternatives to regular charcoal use. Through his company PIB Global Initiative, he would eventually roll out two products; a smokeless charcoal stove and Briquettes.
“As a person, I love to solve problems. When people are complaining, I am constantly thinking of what I can do differently and the solutions I can come up with. This mindset is what brought about PIB Global Limited and pushed me to look at how we can respond to some of the environmental challenges Nigeria is dealing with, like deforestation, open defecation and air pollution,” said Bassey.
Innovative Solutions: Smokeless Charcoal Stoves and Briquettes
The Briquettes are made from invasive aquatic weeds called Water Hyacinth and 100% Smokeless while the Cookstoves are built with eco-friendly materials with biodegradable materials. It also retains heat, reducing charcoal use by 65%. Bassey explains that the process involved in creating these products are 100% eco-friendly.
He said “To solve climate change issues and adapt to climate change we created briquettes charcoal from waste, particularly from water hyacinth and invasive aquatic waste. We remove it from the water bodies, to clean up the water bodies and since we cannot just remove them from the water bodies and throw them away and we have energy needs, we have needs for clean cook charcoal stove and clean cook briquette charcoal that is also smokeless to be able to discourage deforestation and to give green alternative to people using charcoal to cook
“When we remove the water hyacinth, we produce Biochar, a kind of powdered charcoal, we compress it into a solid form and that is briquette charcoal that serves as sustainable charcoal for energy needs like cooking, grilling and baking.
“We also created a clean cook smokeless charcoal stove, because the normal one uses a lot of charcoal and it’s very smoky. With the alternative that we have provided, women can cook indoors. There will also be no problem associated with air pollution and smoke inhalation.”
Laura James, who switched to using the clean cookstove after attending a youth training program encouraging young people to adopt eco-friendly practices says her cooking experience has been transformed.
“When I was using the normal cookstove and charcoal, I knew how much I spent on buying charcoal. Then there was the impact on my own physical health.
“You know, the smoke alone, it also affects the health. But now when I cook, there is no smoke and I use way less charcoal. The amazing thing is that it cooks the food even faster. I am able to cook in my room and I don’t have to worry about too much smoke, or spending heavily on charcoal. I am also less stressed when cooking because I am not coughing and having issues with my voice as a result of smoke,” said Laura.
Meanwhile, another customer simply identified as Mrs. Julie and based in the Badore area of Lagos state, Nigeria sounded quite enthusiastic about the product and expressed her eagerness to share her thoughts. However, she had only recently received the stove and insisted on a thorough testing period before offering her verdict. It was a reminder that innovative solutions require time to prove their worth.
Bassey says his team has sold hundreds of the products, often based on demand and it appears that indeed, the eco-friendly charcoal stoves and briquettes have found their way into several homes but only a handful agreed to a conversation about their experience with the products. The limited feedback remains a puzzle, a missing piece in the grand narrative of environmental progress. However, Briquettes and Cookstove innovation are not novel to Nigeria. Across the world, there have been concerted efforts to promote clean cooking by either producing stoves that burn less charcoal and exploring alternative sources for cooking fuel. Like Peter Bassey of PIB Global in Nigeria, there is also Patrick Kirere of Brisol in DRCongo, driving the production and sales of Briquettes for local communities in his country.
Challenges and Opportunities: Accessibility and Affordability
While Bassey’s PIB Global dreams of distributing the cookstove and briquettes to thousands of users across communities in Nigeria, accessibility and affordability of these products remain a problem. PIB Global is a small organisation and only able to produce in small batches or based on specific requests. Also, its medium sized cookstove costs about $10(N15,000) while the briquette costs $0.61 (N1000) per kg, unaffordable for its target audience who typically earn less than a dollar per day. In contrast, the popular charcoal stove used in many of the affected communities cost less than $5 (N5,000) while the charcoal can be gotten for as little as $0.06 (N100). However, PIB Global has explored the option of partnering with nonprofits and individuals to solve this challenge. In 2023, they partnered with VIFADAD Medical Mission to distribute the product to women in Ifiayong Usuk community, Akwa Ibom state. Health Founder of VFD Medical Mission, Mark Effiong who is also a Health Expert describes the cookstoves and briquette as a preventive approach towards battling health concerns like lung cancer for the women. He says he intends to continue the partnership with PIB Global this year.
“So, we’ve been organising a seven-day free medical outreach for the past three years and last year, I decided to partner with PIB Global Services and then procure, I think, about 15 or so of the cookstoves. And we now had a segment to demonstrate how to use it while our health expert came in to give a talk on the health benefits of using smokeless charcoal stoves and briquettes after which we distributed the cookstoves to them
“Not only is the cookstove economically wise, the health benefit is also huge and that is what we are trying to promote. We are big on preventive approaches. And if these women do not inhale smoke while cooking, it minimises the health hazards they are faced with.
“We have worked in these communities for a while now and know that many of them cook with charcoal or firewood, inhaling smoke and dealing with coughing episodes. The constant inhalation of smoke makes them prone to lung cancer and this was what inspired us to promote the smokeless stove as an alternative.
“We got feedback after the event and the beneficiaries confirmed that it improved their cooking experience because we did a follow-up from the beneficiaries who attested to how the product has improved their cooking experience. And that is why we will be partnering with PIB Global this year again for our outreach so that the stove can reach more women”, Efiiong noted.
Bassey acknowledges that the women of Ifiayong Usuk community, Akwa Ibom would never have heard about and been able to afford the cook stove or briquette without the partnership of the VIFADAD Medical Mission. Underpinning the challenge of accessibility and affordability for its target audience is the organisation’s overhead cost. Because of limited financial resources and machinery, PIB global is forced to produce only a handful of products per time costing them more. Peter Bassey explains that he is now exploring a ‘pay small small’ model to tackle this challenge.
“So, willingness to pay is one thing, having the money to pay is another thing. We are now trying to ensure that people use our products by making it flexible for them to pay. We speak to those in cooperatives and then tell them to pay only 50% of the price before we deliver the products for them to use. The main point is for them to start using it then we spread the remaining 50% within weeks, sometimes months. Some may decide to even pay at once afterwards.
“While trying to make it flexible, we also have to make it sustainable for us so that we can continue staying in business. We run it as a kind of social enterprise and make it a 50-50 win between ourselves and the customers”, he explained.
This report is published in partnership with Nigeria Health Watch through the Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative.
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