A National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has reported that 67.8 percent of Nigerian households in nine states use firewood for cooking.

The report titled: “The 2024 Nigeria Residential Energy Demand-Side Survey (NREDSS)”, released yesterday, noted that despite an upgrade to cooking gas, about 41 percent of households reported purchasing fuel wood.

NBS said: “About 41 percent of households reported purchasing fuel wood, closely followed by cutting/collection (39.0 percent), only 18.9 percent of households used other means such as barter, gift, borrowing etc. “More than half of the fuel wood cut/collected by households is branches, stems, and trees.

“The results reveal that 55.3 percent of fuel wood cut/collected was branches, stems and trees, while 67.8 percent of households used fuel wood either for domestic, agricultural, commercial, cultural or religious purposes”.

The survey also found that one in every five households (22.0 percent) used charcoal during the reference period.

NBS added: “Among households using charcoal, 21.6 percent purchased the product, only 0.3 and 0.6 percent acquired it through own production, and other means respectively.“Furthermore, the results show that 19.4 percent of households reported using Liquefied petroleum Gas, LPG, during the reference period.

“This means that about one in every five households use LPG. “The average monthly expenditure on LPG stood at N10,239.7 across the surveyed states.”

According to NBS, the survey covered Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ekiti, Oyo, Enugu, Kwara, Plateau, Kano, and Sokoto States.