UpEnergy promotes improved smarthome stove to mitigate emission
By Gloria Akudoro, Abuja
A private enterprise known as UpEnergy on Thursday organised a one-day Local Stakeholder Consultation (LSC) meeting of its project to promote an improved smart-home stove to mitigate emissions, improve healthy living and provide a cleaner environment.
Speaking at the LSC program, UpEnergy representative on Carbon Upgrasion Consultant, Mr Toyin Oshoniwa said the company is working towards developing an improved cook stove project in Nigeria just as it has in seven countries in Africa including Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and more.
“The product has started in Nigeria and sales are now more in the north, hopefully in next few months we will be moving to the southern part of the country where high rate of charcoal consumption is visible,” he noted.
While expressing his delight over the huge turnout, he explained that the improved and efficient smart-home stove designed to replace kerosene and the traditional made is being developed to ameliorate the challenges such as deforestation, health and environmental issues by reducing emissions.
Mr Oshoniwa added that part of the impact of the project is to provide an environment friendly, healthier cooking experience, save more money by use of less charcoal as well as proffer alternative to charcoal, create job for the locals and support empowerment of women in the society.
He further stressed that UpEnergy project is standardised in the sense that it works under standard regulatory body such as Verra (Verified Carbon Standard) and Gold Standard and every stove produced undergoes testing to ensure it is within specification.
Responding to strategies initiated to facilitate product distribution to all part of the country, the Consultant noted that they are working towards that direction and are also in collaboration with the Government, NGOs and other private sectors to mitigate climate change problems, support and promote actualisation of Net-Zero by 2030.
Also speaking, the Operation/Expansion Lead Officer, UpEnergy, Matilda Owhotu, said every materials used for the production of smart-home stove are sourced locally which are used to make the it more efficient with long lifespan. She added currently the company strategised a sales plan of door-to-door approach especially in areas where charcoal users are predominant to promote the cooking stoves.
“For now, we don’t want to bring it in just yet, so as to have control over the market with detailed data of all end users who made purchase, and to also gradually provide training of distributors, and assign company’s sales representative with the mandate to record data, and be able to give warranty to the end users,” she emphasised.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Chief Technical Officer, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Benedict Presale, disclosed that the projects are being monitored by SON to ensure whatever that is being deployed to the masses meets the minimum requirements.
However, there’s a standard put in place which is NIS 1000 introduced in 2018.
Mr Samuel Mathias from Plateau State who resides in Airport Abuja, is one of the smart-home stove end users, said he heard about the product from a friend and eventually bought one for his family.
He said compared to other traditional charcoal stove (popularly known as Abacha stove) the improved stove is more convenient and does controls the flame and directs heat to the pot.
He also testified that the cooking stove is heavy and well balanced, it also cooks very fast with little amount of charcoal enough to cook the day’s meal. “It is very economical and helps us save money.”
Highlight of the program was the feedback assessment from the stakeholders as well as everyone present at the LSC meeting project.
