Media representatives were given a tour of the Rekoff Company in Joma Ablekuma, in the Ga West District of the Greater Accra Region, which has been contracted by the Ministry of Energy to build biomass cookstoves, in an effort to raise public awareness of the advantages of clean cooking.
The Ministry has set a goal to provide 500000 effective biomass cookstoves to more than 350 000 homes nationally between 2019 and 2024, with a focus on low-income households in urban and peri-urban populations countrywide. This visit is in support of that goal.
The Better Cookstoves Distribution Initiative is a $5 million partnership between the Ministry of Energy and the Climate Change Center, according to Ing Seth Mahu, Director of the Ministry's Renewable Energy Directorate (CCC) Korean Peninsula.
Mr. Francis Kugblenu, a senior official of Rekoff Co Ltd, led the group through the facility to see and explain the production process.
He claims that the firm employs 100 people, the majority of whom are women, and makes 500 cookstoves every day.
He said that the company's operations had boosted the local economy by creating a number of employment in the catchment region.
According to Mr. Kugblenu, sand that is typically acquired from either the Volta Region or the Central Region is hardened into a mould that resembles a cooker.
The mould is then put in a cookstove made of metal sheets that have been pounded into form, like a pot, with the help of some mortar.
A serial number is assigned to each cooker in order to identify and follow it through the different steps leading up to distribution.
Three hundred and sixteen thousand, six hundred and seven (316607) stoves have already been distributed as part of the initiative in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Central Regions, encompassing ninety-four (94) districts and nine hundred and seventy-seven (977) villages.
In addition, according to Ing. Mahu, around 57170 stoves have been supplied in the Western, Northern, Upper East, and Volta Regions.
He acknowledged the Ministry's delight with the products produced by the numerous businesses contracted for the project's production process.
The crew also went to nearby homes where several residents, mostly women, had benefited from the enhanced cookstoves.
Everyone who participated in the interviews agreed that these cookstoves had provided them with several advantages, including the removal of hazardous smoke emissions and the ability to save money since they now use much less charcoal for the same quantity of fuel.
Ing. Mahu added that clean cooking is crucial for ensuring environmental protection and listed some of the enormous advantages of improved cookstoves, including cleaner air, better health in terms of respiratory diseases, a decrease in the pressure on the forest, significant savings on firewood and charcoal, and a significant reduction of more than one million tonnes of CO2 emissions. He also vowed that the Ministry would continue to pursue its targets to ensure that these benefits are realised.
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