… targets clean cooking by 2030
The Nasarawa State Government has unveiled low emission strategy for the implementation of clean cookstove framework for a period of ten years towards subnational climate leadership.
This action took place during the one-day critical stakeholder validation of the draft Nasarawa State Low Emission Development Strategy, NASLEDS, held at the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Lafia.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General, Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency, Habiba Balarabe Suleiman said, the 10-year Costed Action Plan, 2026–2035, targets 1 million households by 2030.
According to her, the strategies were built on rigorous, primary field data rather than guesswork. Suleiman revealed the sobering statistics of a comprehensive cooking fuels survey conducted in March 2026 across six Local Government Areas, which sampled 1,232 households and 334 businesses.
“The findings speak with uncomfortable clarity: 82.4 % of our households still cook with firewood or charcoal; over 40 per cent report health problems linked to cooking smoke; women and girls carry 93.2 per cent of the cooking responsibility, while men make 60.7 per cent of fuel purchase decisions,” Suleiman stated.
The Director-General noted that despite the challenges, 92.5 % of households surveyed expressed a strong willingness to adopt cleaner cooking technologies.
“The demand is not in question. Our task is to resolve the supply-side constraints of affordability and market reach”,she added.
She explained that the NASLEDS project aligns the State with Nigeria’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the national Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy, adding that the immediate operational priority, however, is the Clean Cookstove Framework, which aims to scale clean cooking access to one million households by 2030.
Suleiman challenged stakeholders to review the documents thoroughly, insisting that the workshop was far from a ceremonial gathering.
On his part, Dr. Adnan Aminu, Head of Green Growth, Murty International Ltd, who is the state’s technical partner echoed the urgency of the framework, making a case for the clean cooking transition, describing the current situation as a public health emergency.
“Clean cooking is an action that we have to take. It’s killing people. It’s smoke and it’s beyond smoke. You’re getting people not being able to breathe properly because of years of inhalation of smoke. And most of those are women and children, mostly in rural areas”, Aminu warned.
According to him, findings from the survey revealed that 40 % of respondents experienced smoke-related illnesses, even as he estimated that nearly 2 million women across the state could be facing active health hazards from traditional cooking methods.
He, however, pointed out that resolving this crisis doubles as a massive economic opportunity.
“If we have to do something about clean cooking, it is not just making our communities and societies healthier, but it is also looking to bring more jobs,” Aminu said. We can have a boom in business development because of transitioning”, he said.
Dr. Aminu also highlighted the environmental toll of inaction, noting that daily deforestation for firewood and charcoal degrades the state’s natural ecosystem.
“Nasarawa State was chosen because it was ready and because of how pushful the DG of Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency is,” Aminu remarked, adding that his firm is contractually committed to staying on the ground to oversee deployment.
The Voice reports that the final revised documents will fully incorporate the inputs from the day’s breakout sessions, paving the way for the official rollout of the 10-Year Costed Action Plan.
The meeting brought together government officials, development partners, academics, and private sector actors to dissect policy instruments designed to transition the state toward net-zero emissions by 2060.
