Relief on clean cooking costs in two years
What you need to know:
- Despite being largely considered to be cheaper options, charcoal, firewood and crop residues were leaving profoundly detrimental impacts on people’s health, causing up to 33,000 deaths annually, according to data from the Energy ministry.
Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians will have to wait for at least two years before they realise a drop in prices for appliances and standardised clean cooking stoves if the ten-year National Strategy for Clean Cooking Energy (NSCCE-2024-2034) has anything to go by.
The Strategy, which was launched in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, puts a two-year ultimatum for the reduction of taxes and levies on energy, appliances, and standardised clean cooking stoves by June 2026.
“Taxes and levies imposed on energy, appliances and standardised clean cooking stoves must have been reduced by June 2026,” reads the strategy in part.
Launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the strategy seeks to raise the number of Tanzanian households using clean cooking energy to 80 percent by the year 2034.
Currently, the population of households using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stands at five. Electricity and other clean coking energy options account for three and two percent of households, respectively, according to official data from the Ministry of Energy.
This leaves 90 percent of Tanzanian households dependent on firewood (64 percent) and charcoal (26 percent). According to the strategy, LPG uptake remains low because of the high initial costs of acquiring the cylinder, appliances and stoves. For instance, the strategy says that one needs at least Sh110,000 to buy a 15-kilogramme stove, while a double-plate stove costs at least Sh50,000.
Besides, refilling the cylinder costs anything between Sh44,000 and Sh59,000.
Among the main costs that importers of LPG and related products pay and which they ultimately transfer to final consumers include customer processing fees, railway development levies, chemical import fees, surveyor fees, and freight, among others.
And, while the reduction of levies is expected to have dropped in a two-year period, the strategy says that to reach the intended target, it will start increasing subsidies for clean cooking energy projects starting in the next fiscal year (July 2024).
By July, 2025, the strategy says, the government should have put in place a system that allows for a procedure through which Tanzanians can start paying for clean cooking energy and efficient technology through affordable loans.
Similarly, electric cooking stoves and appliances should start to be accessible through affordable loans through the “pay as you use” or “pay as you go” system by June 2025.
The system, known mostly in the electricity payment model as LUKU, allows individuals to pay only in line with how much they use instead of making a lump-sum payment upfront.
The system, as the strategy envisions, should have reached the whole country by June 2034.
According to the strategy, while financial education will be provided to clean cooking energy stakeholders starting in July 2024, financial institutions are required to establish a procedure for providing low-interest loans to clean cooking energy stakeholders by June 2025.
Various government ministries and departments, the Strategy says, will have to take part in the implementation of the document, with June, 2026 being set as the deadline for development, review or improvement of policies, laws, regulations and guidelines regarding the use of cooking energy.
In the same vein, guidelines on the quality standards of energy, appliances, and cooking stoves are to be developed or enhanced and implemented by June 2025, the Strategy says, adding that regulations governing the management of the LPG business are scheduled to be reviewed and improved by June 2026.
The government will also undertake a raft of measures in its effort to attract investment in the production of clean cooking energy products, says the Strategy whose implementation will cost a staggering Sh4.6 trillion (about $1.8 billion) in the coming ten years.
Despite being largely considered to be cheaper options, charcoal, firewood and crop residues were leaving profoundly detrimental impacts on people’s health, causing up to 33,000 deaths annually, according to data from the Energy ministry.
Data produced in 2022 by the Energy ministry show that a person who is exposed to firewood-smoke for an hour has similar health risks as the person who smokes between 200 and 300 cigarettes.
