To raise public awareness of the benefits of clean cooking, officials from the Ministry of Energy have toured Rekoff Company, manufacturers of biomass cookstoves at Joma Ablekuma in Accra.
The tour was part of the Ministry’s goal of distributing 500,000 efficient biomass cookstoves to over 350,000 households in the country between 2019 and 2024, with a focus on low-income households in urban and peri-urban communities.
According to Mr Seth Mahu, Director of the Ministry’s Renewable Energy, the Improved Cookstoves Distribution Project was a US$5 million collaboration between the Ministry of Energy and South Korea’s Climate Change Centre (CCC).
He stated that clean cooking was important in ensuring environmental protection, citing cleaner air, improved health in terms of respiratory-related diseases, reduced pressure on the forest, and significant firewood and charcoal savings.
In addition, substantial savings of more than One Million Tonnes of CO2 emissions are some of the immense benefits of the improved cookstoves.
Mr Francis Kugblenu, a Senior Official at Rekoff Co Ltd, led the team around the factory to observe and explain the manufacturing process.
According to him, the company produces about 500 units of cookstoves per day, employing 100 people, the majority of whom are women. He further stated that the company’s activities had contributed to the creation of several jobs in the catchment area and boosted the local economy.
He noted that the project has so far done distribution in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Central Regions, covering 94 districts and 977 communities, with a total allocation of 316,607 stoves. Adding that approximately 57,170 stoves have been distributed throughout the Western, Northern, Upper East and Volta regions.
Irene Wirekoaa Osei
