The Federal Government has flagged off the distribution of gas cylinders to heads of households including 250 Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the Northeast region as part of the country’s Decade of Gas Cooking Gas Outreach Programme.
Speaking at the ceremony in Maiduguri ,Borno State on Thursday, the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Suleiman,recounted the harrowing experiences of women while using firewoods as source of energy in their homes.
According to her, with a mandate to move one million homes to clean cooking gas by year 2030, the federal government through partnership with various sectors has begun addressing challenges associated with environmental pollution, job opportunities and socio-economic activities of the people”. She said.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpe and the Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) Retail, Stokman Huub, shed more light on the cooking gas outreach program.
They lamented the effects of environmental degradation, climate change and the insurgency, which has seriously affected livelihood in the Northeast region.
“This initiative by the Nigerian midstream and downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (PRA) in collaboration with NNPCL Retail, supported by Ministry of Petroleum Resources and that of Women Affairs is timely in addressing issues associated with Climate Change”, Ekpe said.
Managing Director of NNPCL Retail, Stokman Huub,explained that the decade of gas cooking outreach programme was specifically designed to encourage the use of gas within the larger population against other usual sources of cooking like firewood, charcoal and stove towards tackling deforestation which remains a contributory factor to climate change.
He added:”The intervention is not only expected to move one million homes to clean cooking gas by 2030 but create a sustainable outcome for a cleaner, safer and prosperous Borno, North East and nigeria as a whole”.
In his earlier remarks, Governor Babagana Zulum,who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Bukar Tijjani commended the federal government for the initiative.
