The ECOWAS Commission convened the second Steering Committee meeting for the Regional Clean Cooking Action in West Africa (ReCCAWA) in Abuja on 18 September 2026 to review a €17 million EU- and Netherlands-funded initiative.
The programme targets access to affordable, reliable, clean and sustainable cooking solutions for 750,000 people across West Africa.
It is jointly implemented by the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), and is chaired by the ECOWAS Commission’s Energy and Mines Directorate.
In opening remarks, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Energy Infrastructure, Energy and Digitization, Amin Amidu Sulemani, said the vast majority of households in the region still depend on traditional biomass such as firewood and charcoal.
He cited the consequences as severe impacts on the health of women and children, worsening deforestation and climate degradation, and described ReCCAWA as a response aligned with regional bioenergy and energy efficiency goals.
Sulemani recalled that the preparatory Technical Committee had completed work in Praia, Cape Verde, and urged the Steering Committee to concentrate on reviewing activity progress, strengthening coordination between implementing agencies, securing national ownership and maintaining unified public communication.
He then declared the meeting open.
Massimo De Luca, Head of Partnerships at the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said clean cooking remains a priority action for sustainable development in West Africa, with benefits across environmental, economic, inclusion and health fronts.
He framed the work as part of the EU’s commitment to clean cooking in West Africa and globally, and said emphasis would increasingly fall on investment in local production of suitable solutions in line with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy.
Speaking for the Netherlands Embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Head of Mission Ronald Sonnemanas said only a quarter of West Africans have clean cooking access, and that political momentum around clean energy transitions is rising ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
He acknowledged the preparatory and inventory work carried out so far and said the next phase must translate that groundwork into concrete implementation.
He called for strong ECOWAS leadership and political ownership to anchor regional policies into national frameworks, and urged the committee to ensure transparent delivery, close strategic alignment and demonstrable links between financial expenditure and on-the-ground impacts.
A representative from AECID said clean cooking is fundamentally linked to energy access, public health, climate protection and economic development, and cautioned against treating it as a secondary issue.
He said gender equality is central to Spanish Cooperation’s development policy, that interventions must alleviate the disproportionate burdens borne by women and actively integrate them throughout the clean cooking value chain, and expressed support for multilateral solutions over fragmented efforts.
He also reiterated the importance of positioning ECREEE as a central regional knowledge hub and urged partners to combine institutional strengths to deliver measurable improvements for West African citizens.
The committee’s stated role is to move ReCCAWA from administrative preparation to results-driven delivery, accelerating modern energy access, environmental protection and gender equality across the region.
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