The Ministry of Energy through the National LPG Promotion Programme (NLPGPP) has distributed 700 cookstoves to women in Jamestown.
This initiative is part of the ministry’s effort to operationalise the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) and ensure access to safe and reliable Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) usage.
The Minister for Energy, Mr Herbert Krapah, who said this at the 2024 Women in Energy community outreach programme in Accra on Tuesday, added that the outreach programme aims to bring the various policies and programmes that are been run by the ministry “closer to the people”.
“That’s why we’re in Ga Mashie today, distributing cook stoves, educating the people on the cylinder recirculation model and how they can replace their canisters with a filled new one by just going to the vending station. We’re organising a health screening exercise and educating them on the need to switch from firewood and charcoal to cleaner sources of cooking,” he added.
According to Mr Krapah, clean cooking is a fundamental issue that touches on the very fabric of human survival which includes health, the environment and economic well-being.
“By transitioning from traditional biomass fuels to LPG, we can reduce our women and children’s exposure to the harmful smoke in our homes, thereby improving the respiratory health of women and children, and protecting the environment by reducing deforestation with little or no reliance on firewood,” he said.
He called on stakeholders in the energy sector, particularly the media to help in educating Ghanaians on the use of LPG and clean energy.
On her part, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy, Mrs Wilhelmina Asamoah, noted that the Ministry was committed to its Energy policies and other related policy frameworks within the West African sub-region as well as the continental and international conventions that Ghana signed to mobilise, support and build the capacity of women in a male-dominated environment.
“Within the short period of June to November 2022, the Ministry played an instrumental role in mobilising the sector agencies to have a well-organised conference that brought together women from all the different energy sectors, that is, Power and Petroleum, to deliberate on how women can position themselves to support and benefit from the current transition toward green energy,” she added.