Nigeria minister seeks clean-cooking finance for 2060 plan

Nigeria's Environment Minister Balarabe Abbas Lawal sought more clean-cooking finance on Wednesday, as a sector official said projects were linked to more than 20 million tonnes of units, Leadership reported Oct. 30.

At the 2026 forum, Ewa Otu Eleri put clean cooking at more than 20 million tonnes out of about 26 million tonnes of authorised units, tying the sector to household affordability and Nigeria's 2060 net-zero pathway.

Lawal spoke at the Nigeria Clean Cooking Forum 2026 in Abuja through Enebong Abiola, Deputy Director of Climate Change in the ministry. The minister said financing must be widened to make cleaner cooking technologies affordable, especially for low-income households.

"We must acknowledge a fundamental reality: ambition without finance will not deliver clean transformation," Lawal said.

Lawal urged international development institutions to provide technical expertise, concessional financing, guarantees and risk-sharing tools for clean-cooking projects. He also called on financial institutions to treat clean cooking as an emerging investment market, not only a social programme.

The minister said the sector could draw investment into manufacturing, distribution, technology, carbon finance, consumer finance and energy services. He said Nigeria's Energy Transition Plan lists clean cooking among five critical components of the country's route to net-zero emissions by 2060.

That plan envisages a move away from traditional cooking fuels toward liquefied petroleum gas, improved biomass technologies, biogas and electric cooking. Lawal also linked the policy to Nigeria's Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0, the country's climate pledge to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Lawal said the transition must account for women, low-income families and communities with limited access to affordable energy. He called for coordinated investment to shift the sector from isolated projects toward wider programmes.

Affordability remains a constraint. Eleri, Executive Director of the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, said higher energy costs were pushing some households back toward firewood and charcoal.

Eleri attributed the price pressure to the removal of fuel subsidy and global energy disruptions. He said some urban and semi-urban families that had adopted liquefied petroleum gas over the past two or three years were moving back down the "clean energy ladder" to wood.

Eleri said carbon-market financing could help lower the cost of clean-cooking options for poor households. He also said more than 20 million tonnes of units, out of about 26 million tonnes covered by approved letters of authorisation, were linked to clean-cooking projects.

Leadership also reported that GIZ Nigeria and ECOWAS Country Director Markus Wagner said Germany and the European Union were supporting training modules for the Siemens Energy Training Institute in Abuja through the NSP programme.

Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency Director-General Habiba Balarabe Suleiman called for affordable technologies, sustainable financing, private-sector investment and stronger public-private partnerships.

Source: News report, Leadership via AllAfrica, Oct. 30, 2026