45-year-old Hauwa Jubrin stands in a tiny, smoke-filled kitchen, wiping tears from her stinging eyes. “The smoke disturbs me, and is killing my eyes,” she says. Hauwa uses firewood because she cannot afford gas: “I use firewood only because I don’t have money to buy a stove or gas,” she explains. Each day her household spends about ₦150 (less than $1) on firewood, but the cost is paid in health. Hauwa’s story is far from unique. Across rural Nigeria, women spend considerable hours a day trekking into forests to collect firewood for cooking.
In a study of Osun State, researchers found that more than half of rural households reported round-trip treks of 4–6 hours just to fetch firewood. Often girls and children shoulder this chore, walking long distances at dawn and dusk, missing school or risking dangers along the way. “Those who collect fuel are often women and girls. The task increases exposure to gender-based violence,” notes a clean-cooking campaigner.
The human toll is devastating. Indoor cooking smoke is now recognized as a leading killer in Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates roughly 98,000 Nigerian women die each year from smoke inhalation in the home, making indoor air pollution more lethal than malaria or tuberculosis globally. Report shows that firewood smoke is the third-highest killer of women and children after malaria and HIV/AIDS. At least 93,000 Nigerians already die annually from household air pollution. UNICEF also report that Nigeria has the highest number of air-pollution-related deaths from pneumonia among under-5s in the world.
These deaths are preventable. Clean cooking is rarely a headline, so the burden falls unequally on women and children. This hidden labor and health risk undermines SDG 5 on gender equality. Time in the forest collecting wood could otherwise be spent in school, work or rest. In Nigeria today, millions of rural women remain at the back of the energy queue. Research has shown that relying on firewood and other biomass fuels is not only dangerous to health but also consumes countless hours of women’s lives. Their confinement to the kitchen is reinforced as much by weak policies as by entrenched cultural expectations.
The environmental context only deepens the inequity. Nigeria is losing its forests at a staggering rate, roughly 350,000 to 400,000 hectares per year, the highest deforestation rate in Africa. Firewood and charcoal are major drivers, and unchecked use of fire wood for cooking is fueling deforestation.
Cross River State, home to Nigeria’s last remaining rainforests, is a vivid example: its woodlands are under siege by roads, plantations and illegal logging, in addition to hungry villages gathering firewood. Even the charcoal that city-dwellers buy has a cost: charcoal is responsible for degrading woodlands and releasing climate-warming carbon. Nigeria has also pledged under the Paris Agreement to cut emissions by 47% by 2030 (with support). But continued reliance on trees for daily cooking is at odds with those climate goals, and pushes the cost of the clean energy transition onto the nation’s poorest.
The economic burden is heavy. When families do manage to switch from wood to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), any price shock can push them right back. According to a report by PUNCH, the cost of LPG jumped from about ₦700 per kilogram in June 2023 to roughly ₦1,500 per kilogram by October 2024. A rise of nearly 114 percent in just 16 months.. Gasoline subsidies ended long ago, and now LPG and kerosene prices jump sharply each time oil markets move. As Mr Yekini Abdullahi explained: “My wife and I spend so much on cooking gas and in this economic condition, such spending is not sustainable. Although charcoal is cheaper, the difference in price is not that much, so we decided to source for firewood from building sites or in some bush parts around our neighborhood”
Another woman, Mrs. Victoria Shodimu, echoed the struggle: “Before now, I used to buy cooking gas, but now, it is no go area. A kilogramme is now sold for N1,500, worse than kerosene which you can get for N1,250 per litre”. Behind these anecdotes are hard numbers. Analyses find Nigerians spend over $1.3 billion each year on dirtier cooking fuels (wood, charcoal, kerosene), money that could be saved or invested if clean options were more viable. On the flip side, the charcoal trade brings in billions of naira in urban markets even as it destroys forests.
But these short-term costs hide huge long-term losses: every smoke-related illness or missed school day contributes to chronic poverty. Girls who miss school to gather fuel are more likely to drop out; mothers weakened by lung disease or cataracts face higher lifetime health expenses and lower earning capacity. Energy poverty entrenches inequality and keeps families trapped.
Nigeria’s plight stands in contrast to programs elsewhere. In Kenya, a national cooking transition strategy has helped lower- income households gain access to cleaner stoves and fuels (LPG, biogas, ethanol and improved wood stoves) through subsidies and micro-finance. In neighboring countries, research shows that providing efficient pellet stoves and cleaner fuels can dramatically cut firewood use and free up family incomes. The most prominent example is India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Launched in 2016, PMUY boosted India’s LPG coverage from 62 percent on May 1, 2016, to about 99 percent by April 1, 2021, reflecting its successful implementation..
Nigeria has no equivalent large-scale program. It does have a clean-cooking policy on paper, but implementation has lagged. Although the Federal Executive Council only approved a National Clean Cooking Policy in April 2024, follow-through is uncertain. The Honourable Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal pledged awareness campaigns, incentives and training, and the policy writers envision universal clean stoves by 2030. Yet in practice, funding is scarce. Clean cooking continues to be among the least funded priorities in the energy transition.
Many efforts stall or depend on foreign aid. Even when the federal government sets policies, enforcement and support at state and local levels are sorely needed. Amid the gloom, Nigerian women’s groups and entrepreneurs are forging grassroots solutions. Across the country, NGOs are training and empowering women as clean-energy entrepreneurs. For example, the non-profit Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES) initiative partners with local women’s groups to distribute millions of improved cookstoves and educate communities about their benefits.
Since 2015, Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) and WISE have run a “Women’s Clean Cookstoves” program, training female entrepreneurs to sell efficient charcoal and biomass stoves. To date these women have marketed over 60,000 clean cookstoves in their communities. Binta, who lost her father early in training, turned her grief into drive and became the first woman in the program to sell 120 clean cookstoves in five months. One customer now saves 150 Naira daily, previously spent on firewood, to fund her new clothing business.
Similarly, Mercy Corps and USAID backed charcoal briquette ventures. In Borno State, for example, the Dapaya Women group learned to turn agricultural waste into charcoal briquettes. A cheaper, cleaner fuel than raw wood. In just weeks they produced over a ton of briquettes and began selling them, reinvesting profits into more machines.
The local women there report not only extra income, but a sense of purpose: “We were a women’s group that meets regularly just to meet,” says leader Lulu Ibrahim, “but now we have a shared purpose and responsibility”. Beyond briquettes, start-ups like Okra Solar are piloting off-grid solar cooking devices. Okra has partnered to equip community centers and health clinics with solar-powered cookstoves, tapping Nigeria’s abundant sunshine to spare forests. With each local innovation, the promise is the same: reduce smoke at home, cut costs for families, and lighten the load on women.
These examples show a path forward, but they need scale and support. Gender-sensitive energy policy could break the cycle of poverty, poor health, and deforestation. Subsidies and microloans for clean cookstoves, targeted LPG distribution for rural women, or community financing schemes could all amplify what NGOs are doing.
Mobilizing funds, removing tariffs on clean fuels, and involving women in the design of cookstove programs are all key recommendations. Nigeria’s energy transition must be inclusive. For too long, the burden of dirty cooking has been placed on the shoulders of women and girls.
Their health is at stake, as well as the health of their children and their communities. Ending energy poverty in Nigeria will require not only new solar panels and pipelines, but attention to who cooks the meals and how. As the Chairman, of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, Ewah Eleri put it, “The approval of the policy is a call to a partnership between all levels of government, the private sector, civil society… to end cooking energy poverty, reduce the burden on women and lead in efforts to address climate change”.
Now is the time for that inclusive partnership. The data are clear: providing clean cooking fuels and technology saves lives, educates girls, and protects the planet. For every Nigerian woman who still spends her morning gathering firewood instead of going to school, the promise of clean energy must include her voice. A truly gender-inclusive energy transition, one that empowers women to cook safely, earn income, and use their time freely is not just an environmental agenda. It is a human one. Only by bringing the country’s energy sector into every kitchen can Nigeria ensure that its daughters no longer pay the price for energy poverty.