Mrs Sarah Naa Dedei Agbey, the Chairperson, Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Fuels (GHACCO) has urged Ghanaians to adopt improved cookstoves to help cut smoke emissions and environmental pollution.

She said research showed that more than 70 per cent of Ghanaians use solid fuels such as wood and charcoal for cooking, and this produces harmful emissions and lots of environmental problems which had serious health implications on the lives of people.

Mrs Agbey made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on the sideline of GHACCO's validation workshop on its new five-year Strategic Business Plan (SBP).

Objectives of the workshop included providing participants a learning platform from each other and together creating a better SBP document while enhancing and understanding issues pertaining to stakeholders’ value in relation to GHACCO sustainability.

It also provided the platform for stakeholders to validate the results of a study conducted by Deloitte and Touché on a high level strategy and business plan, examine options and make recommendations based on the study.

Mrs Agbey noted that GHACCO’s intention was to come up with clean technologies that did not use much wood fuel; to be able to save our country’s forest.

“Currently majority of Ghanaians are patronising traditional cooking practices," she stated.

The Chairperson noted that GHACCO through its five years of existence, had implemented a project plan, which had come to an end, however, the Alliance was now having partners like the Global Alliance and had been tasked to get a new strategic plan, which would guide its operations.

She said the aim of the workshop was to validate the SBP that had been developed.

She explained that the outcome of the validation workshop would be used to finalise the strategic plan.

She said once the strategic plan had been approved by stakeholders, it would become a working document, which would guide the activities of GHACCO.

Mrs Agbey said the strategic issues in the SBP covered supply; which highlights on manufacturers that produce Cookstoves and the fuel for them to be able to expand whatever they were doing and how GHACCO could help them to benefit from the government’s One-District One-Factory Policy.

She said the SBP also highlighted the demand side; which would focus on getting Ghanaians to understand the current technology they were using and the implications on the forest and their health, and business opportunities in the clean Cookstoves sector.

“We also do a lot of education to sensitise the demand side; there are policy issues, so we also work with the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission to see how best we can input into the policy process," she added.

The Chairperson commended the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission for their support.

She called on the media to help educate the citizenry on the need to patronise clean cooking technologies.