Clean Cooking Initiative Emerges from personal loss ,Tackles Energy Poverty Across Africa

A personal tragedy has sparked a continent-wide movement aimed at addressing energy poverty, gender-based violence, and environmental degradation in Africa, with the emergence of Clean Cooking Club Initiative Africa (CCCI Africa).

The initiative was founded in 2020 by a Nigerian environmental advocate following the rape and murder of her 12-year-old niece, Amope, who was attacked while gathering firewood—an everyday task for millions of women and girls across the continent. The incident, according to the founder, exposed the dangerous link between energy poverty, insecurity, poor health outcomes, and deforestation.

“My niece’s death was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of a silent epidemic,” the founder said. “This personal loss forced me to confront the devastating nexus of gender-based violence, health crises from toxic cooking smoke, which kills over 100,000 Nigerian women annually, and environmental deforestation. CCCI Africa was founded to break this deadly cycle.”

With professional training in Environmental Education, Clean Energy Financing, and Gender-Based Violence response, the founder channelled her grief into building a structured intervention focused on two main pillars: the distribution of affordable clean cookstoves and the empowerment of women through clean energy enterprise training.

Findings from public health and environmental data show that indoor air pollution remains the second leading cause of death in Africa, largely driven by the use of firewood and charcoal for cooking. CCCI Africa says its clean cookstoves significantly reduce exposure to toxic smoke, lowering the risk of respiratory illnesses, pregnancy complications, and premature deaths. Environmentally, each stove saves an estimated two tonnes of firewood annually. The organisation targets the distribution of one million stoves by 2030, a move projected to mitigate over one million tonnes of carbon emissions yearly and preserve millions of trees.

Beyond health and climate benefits, the initiative is also building a green economy around clean cooking. Through manufacturing, distribution, maintenance, and enterprise support, CCCI Africa is creating sustainable livelihoods and strengthening community resilience.

In Kaduna State, one of the programme’s early beneficiaries, Mama Anat, a former firewood and charcoal trader earning over $2,000 annually, transitioned into clean cookstove distribution after participating in the organisation’s CEELA accelerator programme. By 2024, she had sold more than 6,000 stoves, expanded into neighbouring towns, and shifted from forest-dependent trading to clean energy advocacy.

Similarly, in Ogbere village, the founder’s home community, CCCI Africa reported that by 2024 all households had adopted clean cooking solutions, with the organisation supplying 99 per cent of the stoves in use. According to the founder, the achievement proves that “systemic, community-wide change is achievable.”

To reach rural and hard-to-access communities, the initiative has deployed a hybrid digital platform that combines simple USSD technology with advanced data tracking. Through basic mobile phones, users can order stoves, access financing, and receive support in local languages within 24 hours. IoT-enabled stoves track usage, fuel savings, and emissions, with the data processed through an AI system to verify carbon credits and reinvest revenue into community programmes.

However, scaling the initiative has not been without challenges. Cultural resistance, opposition from entrenched firewood interests, affordability constraints, and literacy gaps initially slowed adoption. In response, CCCI Africa adopted community-led sensitisation, flexible micro-payment options as low as $1 daily, and visual-based training methods using pictograms and audio guides.

Progress towards its 2030 targets—one million stoves and 50,000 green jobs—is monitored using data-driven indicators such as stove adoption rates, carbon emissions reduced, trees preserved, jobs created, household fuel savings, and improved health outcomes.

The initiative’s growth has been supported by partnerships with grassroots women’s groups, farmers’ cooperatives, and Savers Clubs, as well as technical and funding support from organisations including Farmers Alliance Africa and WACSI. Private sector contributions from clean cookstove manufacturers and donors such as D-Olivette, alongside policy engagement with bodies like the Nigeria Clean Cooking Forum, the World Bank, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), have further strengthened its impact.

Looking ahead, the founder said the organisation plans to scale carbon credit partnerships with corporate bodies, license its AI-USSD platform across the region, and collaborate with ECOWAS and governments in neighbouring countries to replicate the model.

From a story of personal loss, CCCI Africa has grown into a structured, community-driven intervention demonstrating how clean cooking can improve public health, protect forests, empower women, and drive sustainable development across Africa.