ABUJA – An NGO, Follow the Money International, has called on the Federal Ministry of Environment to present its work plan on disbursement of the N9.2 billion clean cook stove funds.
The Country Director of the organisation, Mr Hamzat Lawal, told newsmen that the organisation would track the disbursement of the funds to ensure that it gets to the rural women.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government recently approved the purchase of 700,000 units of the stoves.
“The Federal Executive Council has approved the N9.2 billion, our letter to the ministry will be to know where is the money right now, whether if it has left the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Environment.
“If it has been given to the contractor, we want their work plan; so this will even give us more information to be able to engage stakeholders and know when we will be on ground to engage rural women.
“As part of our strategy, we hope to go to the rural communities across the country because Follow the Money Network cut across the 36 states and the FCT.
“We hope to engage our representatives to rally around stakeholders and conduct town meeting and to bring the beneficiaries of the clean cook stove together.
“ We will ask rural women about their challenges and how excited and devastating they are in using the stoves. For us, it will be a huge success if these women actually used these stoves.”
Quoting 2013 World Health Orgnisation report, Lawal said that over 95,000 women and children die annually from smokes inhaled during cooking with firewood.
However, it  recalled that the Federal Ministry of Environment launched a Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES) project in December 2013 to address the problems of cooking with fire wood in the country.