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Using a household energy technology to promote small scale enterprises in rural communities, Nigeria
[top] [end]IntroductionNigeria, today, is reputed to be the tenth largest country in the world. Demographic data put 80% of the population as living in the rural communities, leaving the remaining 20% in the few urban centres that are already bursting at the margins.Originally, Nigeria could boast seven distinct ecological zones; in the south, distinct regions of mangrove forest, fresh water marshland, mountain vegetation and rainforest, and moving into savanna regions comprising mainly grassland in the northern fringe. Today, the advancing desert and deforestation is continually pushing the limits of the derived savanna- the interface between the arid land and the forest belt- further into the rainforest region. Forests and woodlands are estimated at 9.6 million hectares, representing 16% of the total land cover. This supplies two-thirds of the total energy need of Nigeria’s household energy sector put at an equivalent of 263kg of coal per annum. The energy requirement is predominantly met by fuelwood, which supplies 80% of the total demand. The remainder is met by: kerosene 10%; LPG 4%; charcoal 3%; and other biomass 3%. However, increased dependence on fuelwood, coupled with other unsustainable activities such as commercial logging, forest fires, massive urbanization, population pressure and desertification cumulatively created an annul deforestation of 450,000 hectares in the 1980s. Today, the country’s forest reserves are put at only four times the annual consumption of fuelwood. To reverse this trend, the Centre for Household Energy and the Environment embarked on a twoyear study into household energy situation in Nigeria with key emphasis on environment, health, gender and poverty. The two communities selected were; Oghara – a typical rural community, and Benin – a peri-urban community. Both are located in the rain forest ecological zone in the southwest Nigeria. [top] [end]Rural poverty and household energy in NigeriaIn the survey, encompassing 1270 individuals out of a population of over 8000, the reasons for so much dependence on biomass were cited as follows:
[top] [end]The promotion of the improved energy-efficient egaga stoveThe technical team suggested an intervention that:
Egaga is a local device used to support cooking pots over traditional open fires in parts of rural and urban Nigeria. Identifying the need to accommodate people’s traditional beliefs, CEHEEN chose a compromise which provided new, visible, significant advantages and also maintained key factors associated with smoke, tastiness and preservation of food. As an improvement on the crude tripod egaga, which is usually supported by stones, and into which can be fed uncontrolled amounts of fuelwood, the team developed a variant semienclosed egaga metal stove(Figure 1), which conserves up to 60% of the heat hitherto dissipated, while using limited amounts of fuelwood. Before final adoption, two existing stove models were tested against the improved egaga: the fixed mud stove, and the conventional tripod egaga stove (Figure 2). The tests were based on; durability; portability; thermal efficiency; emission reduction; affordability; and replicability. In the test, the improved egaga scored above the other two models used in every way. While it took the improved egaga a record time of 12 minutes to bring 4 litres of water to boiling point, it took the fixed mud stove and open fire 18 and 19 minutes to perform the same task.
So far, a total number of 3,274 improved egaga stoves have been disseminated in the first phase of the pilot project in the two communities. The emergence of small scale agricultural and economic activities have been on the increase since the egaga stove promotion started in early 2000. [top] [end]Bringing small-scale businesses to the rural poor with the improved egaga stovesOne visible advantage that the beneficiaries of the improved egaga seem to be enjoying is the stove’s potential in boosting people’s spirit of enterprise. Every stage of the improved egaga stove production involves manpower in both formal and informal sectors. A socio-economic impact assessment revealed that since the dissemination of the improved stoves in the two pilot communities, up to 60% of the people have directly and indirectly gained employment.Following a training programme organized by the centre for some women’s group, six fabrication workshops have now been set up. In one of the workshops in Benin, a fabricator is making 3 to 4 stoves daily providing a monthly income of US$196 (~24000 Naira).
[top] [end]ConclusionThe majority of the people who depend on biomass fuels for domestic energy are poor, so any intervention approach should aim at using the opportunity to improve the livelihoods of the beneficiaries. One way forward is to ensure that the programme includes opportunities for economic empowerment. An improved stove programme can therefore be considered strategic to poverty alleviation as it provides income-generating opportunities, as well as providing linkages that enhance rural development. The improved egaga stove project is in its second year, and initial funding has been made possible by grants from the U.K based Ashden Trust for Renewable Energy and the Whitley Awards Foundation.[top] [end]References
[top] [end]Download the original article Using a household energy technology to promote small scale enterprises in rural communities in Nigeria - The egaga stove experience by Joe Obueh (106 KB)[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 47: Household energy and enterprise
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Page created:
06 July 2007; Last edited:
06 July 2007; Version: 1 | |||||||||||||
Pagename: UsingAHouseholdEnergyTechnologyToPromoteSmallScaleEnterprisesInRuralCommunitiesInNigeria @HEDON: CPFA | |||||||||||||
