An Appraisal of Household Domestic Energy Consumption in Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

One of the characteristics of African cities is uncoordinated urbanization with a trend of 4% annually, but the rate differs according to regions. Several factors are associated with urbanization such as lifestyle, consumption habit and pattern. The environment today is facing challenges from urbanization as consumption of resources such as land; water; energy, and air have changed to artificial environment. Energy consumption has been the driving force in global warming. Overtime, urbanization has been a great threat to sustainability of urban environment. However, kerosene and LPG that are supposed to be the major source of energy for cooking becomes unaffordable to low income households. This research was conducted in two residential areas of the identified neighbourhood and the choice of this neighbourhood is influenced by the fact that the phenomenon under study is more prevalent in the high and medium density localities. The effect of increase in electricity tariff, kerosene and LPG has shifted the focus of household source of cooking energy to biomass and this has been the cause of the environmental problems in the area which includes Indoor Air Pollution, Deforestation and Desertification. The analysis however shows a significant relationship between choice of energy and income.