Patterns and Determinants of Households' Energy Choices for Cooking as Well as Their Implications for Poverty Eradication in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Adequate access to environmentally-friendly energy sources is crucial for addressing the problems of environmental degradation and adverse climate change as well as other developmental challenges. The literature on the patterns and determinants of households' energy choices for cooking is very scanty. Essentially, the scanty literature, in general, did not adequately cater for household composition and economies of scale in household consumption as well as give adequate consideration to the impact of ownership of education/entertainment appliances and means of communication by households on households' energy choices for cooking. It is very important to utilize adult equivalence scales and estimate of economies of scales in household consumption in the analysis of household consumption in order to make such analysis highly robust. It is also very important to include ownership of education/entertainment appliances and means of communication in the analysis of households' energy choices for cooking because they (the appliances and means of communication) are expected to provide adequate awareness on the harmful effects of dirty energy sources and such awareness can influence households' energy choices. Furthermore, none of the studies in the scanty literature discussed the major implications for poverty eradication of the patterns and determinants of households' energy choices for cooking. This study adequately addressed the highlighted research gaps. The study analyzed the patterns and determinants of households' energy choices for cooking in Nigeria and discussed their implications for poverty eradication in the country using, among other things, descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression technique. The study was based on a nationally representative survey data, obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The study found that the patterns of households' energy choices for cooking in Nigeria exhibit the operation of energy ladder hypothesis. The study also found that increased educational level of household head, ownership of electric food preservation appliance by household and satisfactory housing condition are among the factors that increase the likelihoods of the uses of transition fuels and very clean energy sources as well as reduce the likelihood of the use of traditional biomass fuels. Adequate measures should therefore be put in place to sufficiently increase households' incomes and guarantee optimal access to environmentally-friendly energy sources for cooking in the country; this will pave the way for poverty eradication in the country.