FCMB, ICEED donate 250 clean cook-stoves to IDPs in Abuja

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in collaboration with Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (NACC) at the weekend donated 250 clean cook-stoves to hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Abuja.
The IDCs camp was set up to accommodate over 1,000 IDPs including women and children from Michika in Adamawa state and Gwoza in Borno state who were displaced by the insurgents about three months ago.
Speaking on the initiative, Akinwumi Kolapo, vice president, FCMB, disclosed that each of the clean cookstoves cost about N15,000.
Kolapo who was accompanied by Garuba Mohammed, FCMB manager, Abuja, reiterated the bank’s readiness to support any sustainable environmental initiatives expressed concern over the effects of the use of firewood on well-being and health of women and children.
He said: “In 1998, somebody dear to me had multiple eye surgery because of persistent use of kerosene and firewood. It cost us a lot of money to do the surgery but today we have a clean cook stove technology. With this, you spend less money treating yourselves and cooking your food.”
On his part, Ewa Eleri, NACC coordinator and executive director of International Centre for Energy, Energy and Development (ICEED) noted that the use of the new technology will reduce the death of over 100,000 women and children as a result of the harmful gas emission from the firewood.
“We are in a country where over 100,000 women and children die of very harmful gasses from firewood leading to red-eyes, Pneumonia, among others. But for the IDPs who have left their houses and markets, cooking can be a problem. Going out to the bush becomes dangerous because of the sexually motivated violence that comes from security challenges in our country,” he lamented.
To avert the danger, he assured that the use of the clean cookstoves will reduce 80 percent of the wood and reduce tree cutting and impact of climate change on our environment.