General News
Nigeria Targets 40% Clean Cooking Access in Three Years
Nigeria is targeting between 30 and 40 per cent access to clean cooking within the next three years as part of efforts to reduce deaths linked to household air pollution.
Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this in an interview with Radio Nigeria in New York on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.
She said Nigeria was using the UNGA to attract investment and strengthen partnerships around clean cooking, women’s protection, social justice and other interventions under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The Minister said Nigeria loses about 100,000 lives annually to diseases linked to exposure to harmful cooking fumes.
She said the country’s abundant gas resources provide an opportunity to expand clean cooking, adding that the Ministry was working with the Ministry of Gas and other stakeholders to attract investment into the programme.
Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim also highlighted government efforts to address out-of-school children and early child marriage, while improving opportunities for women and girls.
She said the growing number of female graduates across the country has created a new challenge of preparing them for employment.
The Minister also said Nigerian women in the diaspora were being mobilised to participate in the country’s political process, describing women as central to the administration’s agenda.