By Fatou Saho
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has held a two-day workshop to validate a new national strategy document, aided by ECOWAS, to promote and popularise Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) in the Gambia.
The strategy aims to; better health conditions, reduce energy dependency on wood and Charcoal, develop private sectors in the area of energy, conserve and enhance the eco system and host of others.
Addressing the participants last week, petroleum and energy minister, Abdoulie Jobe, expressed joy over women’s participation in such a development process.
He told them: “Your participation demonstrates your commitment to national and international cooperation in the finalisation of our common objectives, and that is to reduce greenhouse gas emission and that is the principal objective of popularisation of the LPG”.
He lamented some of the negative impacts of unhealthy source of cooking in which he pointed out to be impacts on: health, women, education, and environment.
“So having the strategy to boost the use of clean energy source is quite an achievement and very much welcomed”, Minister Jobe noted.
Meanwhile, ECOWAS commissions’ director for energy and mines, Dabire Bayaornibé, said the meeting marks a culmination of the long process with the ministry of petroleum since 2021.
He said the ECOWAS commission has decided to focus on actions that effectively contribute to improving people’s living conditions.
Bayaornibé again explained that the strategy was adopted by the ECOWAS council of ministers in 2018 to make LPG the proffered household cooking energy in the ECOWAS region by 2030.
