GHACCO said the 10 million-dollar initiative, funded by the Korean Government, and spans five years beginning early 2019, was worthy of commendation. The move would contribute to a reduction in the burden of diseases and health risks posed by open fire and inefficient cooking methods.

It would also reduce the loss of lives to in-door air pollution, currently accounting for an estimated 18,000 deaths per annum in Ghana alone.    A statement issued by GHACCO and signed by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mohammed Aminu Lukumanu, in Accra, said the initiative had an initial job creation potential of 1,375 for local entrepreneurs and artisans as well as individuals across the entire value chain of the clean cooking industry.

“Provision of these stoves, if scaled, could significantly help to reduce the fast depletion pace of Ghana’s forest cover currently exploited at a rate of about three per cent in view of the reduced levels of firewood and charcoal consumption,” it said.

The statement, particularly, commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his personal commitment to saving the forest, evidenced by the implementation of the “Operation Vanguard”.

It said the move would, without doubt, help curtail the devastating effects of climate change variability in relation to the release of polluting black carbon as a result of incomplete combustion of biomass fuels with the use of inefficient cookstoves or open fires.

“Finally, the delivery of these stoves to the rural people would especially impact women and girls through a reduction in time spent in fetching firewood and cooking, while the savings made can now be invested in gainful economic activities by them,” it said.

The statement advised government to learn from the experiences of past interventions like the Ähibenso Project, which failed to reach scale, adding that; “It is often reported that projects that focus on stove give away without due consideration to market-based approaches failed in the creation of sustainability”.

It said the bane of many projects remained their inability to create commercial viable enterprises that would continue to service future stove replacements, especially where demand had been adequately stimulated.

“We, therefore, crave the indulgence of government to ensure that the implementation of this project takes due cognisance of scalable market advancement by incorporating project streams that aim at strengthening supply, demand, creating access to finances and facilitating a concerted policy environment,” it said.

GHACCO recognised that the inability to create a sustainable cook stove market was a major barrier for reaching scale and called for the need to address critical issues in the value chain to ensure sustainability, the statement said.

It suggested the strengthening of capacity building for cookstove manufacturers towards the development of innovative high performing stoves for business development support.