Ministry Receives N5bn For Clean Cookstoves Project, Says Minister

The Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia
Mallam on Friday disclosed that the ministry
had received N5 billion to implement the
Clean Cookstoves project in the country.
Mallam made this known after the
inspection of the procured clean cookstoves
at National Stadium in Abuja.
She said that the ministry had already paid
15 per cent of the contract sum to Integra
Renewable Energy Services Ltd. to supply
the items.
“We have paid N1.3 billion out of N9.2 billion
to the contractors and shall soon start
distributing the stoves to the beneficiaries in
the rural areas.
“There is no secret in what we are doing;
we are transparent, the balance from the N5
billion is in the ministry’s account, we shall
pay it at the appropriate time,“ the minister
said.
According to Mallam, the project is part of
the Presidential initiative on deforestation
and it is very dear to the heart of the
ministry.
Meanwhile, the Integra Renewable Energy
Services Ltd., the contractor handling the
Clean Cookstoves project, confirmed that
the Federal Government had released N1.3
billon out of N9.2 billon to execute the
project.
Mr Clinton Biragbara, the Secretary of the
company, stated this at the 3rd
stakeholders’ meeting on Clean Cookstoves
Monitoring and Financing in Abuja.
According to Biragbara, the company is
asking the ministry to extend the duration of
the execution of the project to ensure
effective collation and distribution.
“We are still working with the Federal
Ministry of Environment to get waiver to
bring the wonderbags to the country,’’ he
said
However, the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) recalls that the Federal Executive
Council had in November, 2014 approved
N9. 2 billion to buy 750,000 clean
cookstoves and 18,000 wonderbags for
rural women.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN), Mr Boma Young-Harry, Managing
Director of the company, said the company
had supplied over 120,000 gas cylinders
and 12,000 ecostoves to the ministry.
He said the company had also supplied
over 20,000 different brands of ecostoves,
among other items.
Mr Oludotun Babayemi, a Monitoring and
Evaluation Expert, Connected Development
Organisation (CODE), an NGO, said that it
had started monitoring the procurement
and distribution of the stoves.
Babayemi said that the organisation under
its `Follow the Money Network` had written
to the ministry, demanding for details of the
procurement and distribution of the stoves.
According to him, the organisation has
been following the execution of the project
using the instrument of Freedom of
Information Bill.
“We have not received any response from
the ministry concerning our request, asking
for the information on the work plan,
procedure for distribution and also the
beneficiaries.
“The citizens are asking where is the N9.2
billion and when the stoves will get to them.
“That is why we need to know how much
has been released so far and how it’s been
spent because we believe that every
government intervention is supposed to get
to its final destination.’’
Reacting, Mr Umar Umar , an Assistant
Director, in the Procurement Unit, Federal
Ministry of Environment, appealed to
newsmen to always get correct information
before publishing their stories.
“Most of the reports published on this
project were not correct so I will advice the
media to get the correct information from
the spokesperson of the ministry,“ he said.
NAN reports that other stakeholders who
spoke also hinged on effective collaboration
of all the stakeholders to ensure the success
and sustainability of the project.
NAN also reports that the project is
supposed to be implemented under the
Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES)
project, an initiative of the Federal Ministry
of Environment launched in 2013.
The initiative is aimed at addressing the
problems of cooking with firewood in the
country.