impact of wealth distribution on energy consumption in nigeria: a

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1 IMPACT OF WEALTH DISTRIBUTION ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED HOUSEHOLDS’ IN GOMBE STATE. By Bello, Maryam Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria West Africa [email protected] +234 802 374 2740 Abstract The world is facing strong threat of climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the use of unconventional energy sources which have negative impacts on the environment and human health. Biomass is the primary source of energy for majority of the population in Africa; in Sub-Saharan African Countries fuelwood and charcoal are the staple energy sources for most rural and urban communities. Using Cross-Sectional survey data from a sample of 500 households’ in Gombe State of Nigeria the study investigates the impact of wealth distribution on energy consumption, and analysis the determinants of households’ energy choice for cooking. The simple descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model is used in analysing the data obtained. An empirical result of the logit model reveals that the choice of cooking energy is mainly determined by the economic wealth of households’. Besides the economic wealth, the analysis also shows that size of households’ and level of education are found to be key factors in energy consumption behaviour, especially when dealing with energy source switching. Economic wealth of households’ was found to be a major determinant of the type of cooking energy used by households’ in Nigeria. Wood was used by the low-income households’ as the main source of cooking energy while the modern fuels are used by the upper class in the society. 1.0 INTRODUCTION In developing countries, most of the rural as well as urban communities have less access to modern and clean energy sources and mostly depend on traditional fuel /biomass (woods, twigs, leaves, charcoal, animal dung and crop residue) for virtually all their energy requirements. It is estimated that approximately 2.5 billion people in developing countries rely on biomass fuels to meet their cooking needs. For many of these countries, more than 90 percent of total household fuel is biomass. Without new policies, the number of people that rely on biomass fuels is expected to increase to 2.6 billion by 2015, and 2.7 billion by 2030 (about one-third of the world‘s population) due to population growth (IEA 2006). While rural households‘ rely more on biomass fuels than those in urban areas, well over half of all urban households‘ in sub-Saharan Africa rely on fuelwood, charcoal, or wood waste to meet their cooking needs (IEA 2006). With increasing population and urbanization over time, urban household energy is an important issue for developing countries in general. Heavy reliance of urban households‘ in Sub-Saharan Africa on biomass fuels (such as woody biomass and dung) contribute to deforestation, forest degradation, and land degradation. This is partly because use of these fuels in urban areas is an important source of cash income for people in both urban and rural areas. While use of woody biomass as fuel and as construction material contributes to deforestation and forest degradation, use of dung as fuel implies that it might not be available for use as fertilizerthus contributing to land degradation and consequent reduction in agricultural productivity. Over 60% of Nigeria's population depends on fuelwood for cooking and other domestic uses (ECN, 2003). The rural areas have little access to conventional energy such as electricity and petroleum products due to absence of good road networks. Petroleum products such as kerosene and gasoline are purchased in the rural areas at prices very high in excess of their official pump prices. The rural populace, whose needs are often basic, therefore depend to a large extent on fuelwood as a major traditional source of fuel. It has been estimated that about 86% of rural households‘ in Nigeria depend on fuelwood as their source of energy (Williams, 1998). Fuelwood supply/demand imbalance in some parts of the country is now a real threat to the energy security of the rural communities (ECN, 2003).

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Page 1: IMPACT OF WEALTH DISTRIBUTION ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN NIGERIA: A

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IMPACT OF WEALTH DISTRIBUTION ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN NIGERIA: A

CASE STUDY OF SELECTED HOUSEHOLDS’ IN GOMBE STATE. By

Bello, Maryam

Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria – West Africa

[email protected]

+234 802 374 2740

Abstract

The world is facing strong threat of climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the use of unconventional

energy sources which have negative impacts on the environment and human health. Biomass is the primary source of energy

for majority of the population in Africa; in Sub-Saharan African Countries fuelwood and charcoal are the staple energy

sources for most rural and urban communities. Using Cross-Sectional survey data from a sample of 500 households’ in

Gombe State of Nigeria the study investigates the impact of wealth distribution on energy consumption, and analysis the

determinants of households’ energy choice for cooking. The simple descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model is used

in analysing the data obtained. An empirical result of the logit model reveals that the choice of cooking energy is mainly

determined by the economic wealth of households’. Besides the economic wealth, the analysis also shows that size of

households’ and level of education are found to be key factors in energy consumption behaviour, especially when dealing

with energy source switching. Economic wealth of households’ was found to be a major determinant of the type of cooking

energy used by households’ in Nigeria. Wood was used by the low-income households’ as the main source of cooking energy

while the modern fuels are used by the upper class in the society.

1.0 INTRODUCTION In developing countries, most of the rural as well as urban communities have less access to modern and clean energy sources

and mostly depend on traditional fuel /biomass (woods, twigs, leaves, charcoal, animal dung and crop residue) for virtually

all their energy requirements. It is estimated that approximately 2.5 billion people in developing countries rely on biomass

fuels to meet their cooking needs. For many of these countries, more than 90 percent of total household fuel is biomass.

Without new policies, the number of people that rely on biomass fuels is expected to increase to 2.6 billion by 2015, and 2.7

billion by 2030 (about one-third of the world‘s population) due to population growth (IEA 2006). While rural households‘

rely more on biomass fuels than those in urban areas, well over half of all urban households‘ in sub-Saharan Africa rely on

fuelwood, charcoal, or wood waste to meet their cooking needs (IEA 2006).

With increasing population and urbanization over time, urban household energy is an important issue for developing

countries in general. Heavy reliance of urban households‘ in Sub-Saharan Africa on biomass fuels (such as woody biomass

and dung) contribute to deforestation, forest degradation, and land degradation. This is partly because use of these fuels in

urban areas is an important source of cash income for people in both urban and rural areas. While use of woody biomass as

fuel and as construction material contributes to deforestation and forest degradation, use of dung as fuel implies that it might

not be available for use as fertilizer—thus contributing to land degradation and consequent reduction in agricultural

productivity.

Over 60% of Nigeria's population depends on fuelwood for cooking and other domestic uses (ECN, 2003). The rural areas

have little access to conventional energy such as electricity and petroleum products due to absence of good road networks.

Petroleum products such as kerosene and gasoline are purchased in the rural areas at prices very high in excess of their

official pump prices. The rural populace, whose needs are often basic, therefore depend to a large extent on fuelwood as a

major traditional source of fuel. It has been estimated that about 86% of rural households‘ in Nigeria depend on fuelwood as

their source of energy (Williams, 1998). Fuelwood supply/demand imbalance in some parts of the country is now a real

threat to the energy security of the rural communities (ECN, 2003).

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Nigeria consumes over 50 million metric tonnes of fuelwood annually, a rate, which exceeds the replenishment rate through

various afforestation programme (ICCDD, 2000). Sourcing fuelwood for domestic and commercial uses is a major cause of

desertification in the arid-zone states and erosion in the southern part of the country (Sambo, 2009). The rate of deforestation

is about 350,000 hectares per year, which is equivalent to 3.6% of the present area of forests and woodlands, whereas

reforestation is only at about 10% of the deforestation rate (ICCDD, 2000). From available statistics, the nation‘s 15 million

hectares of forest and woodland reserves could be depleted within the next fifty years (ECN, 2003). These would result in

negative impacts on the environment, such as soil erosion, desertification, loss of biodiversity, micro-climatic change and

flooding. Most of these impacts are already evident in different ecological zones in the country, amounting to huge economic

losses (Sambo, 2009). The consumption of fuelwood is worsened by the widespread use of inefficient cooking methods that

are hazardous to human health, especially to women and children who mostly do the cooking in homes.

It has been argued that households‘ with low income levels rely on biomass fuels, such as wood and dung, while those with

higher incomes consume energy that is cleaner and more expensive, such as Liquid petroleum gas (LPG). Those households‘

in transition consume what are called transition fuels, such as kerosene and charcoal. This fuel choice and consumption

behaviour of households‘ is known as the ―energy ladder hypothesis‖.

Apart from high income, one set of factors necessary for switching to other fuels households‘ is cheap and better availability

of alternative fuels other than traditional biomass fuels. Empirical evidence has shown that for many households‘, the

decision over which fuel to use or how much of the fuel to use, requires the consideration of several important factors. For

instance Narain et al (2008) found that fuelwood use and dependence (defined as its contribution to the total ‗permanent

income‘ of households‘) increases with forest biomass availability irrespective of income levels. Also, access to electricity

has been found to be another important determinant of the energy transition (Campbell et al. 2003; Davis 1998; Ouedraogo

2006). Others are house standard, level of education of husband and wife, occupation of wife, frequency of cooking certain

meals and household size (Alam et al. 1998; Ouedraogo 2005; Madubansi and Shackleton 2007; Pundo and Fraser, 2006).

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of wealth distribution on energy consumption, and to analyse the

determinants of households‘ energy choice for cooking in Gombe State of Nigeria.

The paper is divided into five sections. The introduction in section one is followed by section two which presents the

conceptual framework, and a brief review of some theoretical and related literature. The data collected and methods of

analysis are discussed in section three while section four presents and discusses the results. Finally, the paper is concluded in

section five and some policy recommendations are also given.

2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND SOME THEORETICAL ISSUES

2.1 Defining the Concept of Wealth

In common use ‗wealth‘ means money, property, gold and so on. But in economics it is used to describe all things that have

value. Wealth is the total value of a person‘s net worth expressed as:

Wealth = assets − liabilities

Wealth may be held in various forms: these include money, shares in companies, debt instruments, land, buildings,

intellectual property, and valuables etc (Black, 2002).The wealth of individuals is believed to affect their choices of

consumption, thus the part of wealth that have direct influence on consumption is income. Understanding the effect of

income on consumption has been a central point of a great deal of theorizing work for example the Keynes ―Absolute

Income Hypothesis‖, ―Duesenberry‘s ―Relative Income Hypothesis‖, Modigliani and Brumberg ―Life Cycle Hypothesis‖ and

the ―Permanent Income Hypothesis‖ of Friedman.

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The preferred theory here is the Keynesian – Absolute income hypothesis which is based on the assumption that,

consumption depends on income. Or simply, the major influence on personal consumption is an individual income. And this

is what portrays the real picture of the consumption pattern of the people living in the study area.

2.2 The Energy Ladder Model

Household fuel choice has often been conceptualized using the ―energy ladder‖ model (Figure1); the model emphasized the

role of income in determining fuel choices and fuel switching.

Figure 1: Energy Ladder Model

From W.H.O (2006) (Figure 1: The energy ladder: household and development inextricably linked)

Note: Ethanol and methanol are rarely, if ever, used.

Dash: estimate

WHO (2006) (Figure 1: The energy ladder: household energy and development inextricably linked)

Note: Ethanol and Methanol are rarely, if ever, used.

Dash: estimate

The energy ladder model envisions a three-stage fuel switching process. The first stage is marked by universal reliance on

biomass. In the second stage households‘ move to ―transition‖ fuels such as kerosene, coal and charcoal in response to higher

incomes and factors such as deforestation and urbanization. In the third phase households‘ switch to LPG, natural gas, or

electricity. The main driver affecting the movement up the energy ladder is hypothesized to be income and relative fuel

prices (Leach, 1992; Barnes, Krutilla, and Hyde, 2002; Barnes and Floor, 1999).

The major achievement of the energy ladder model in its simplest form is the ability to capture the strong income

dependence of fuel choices. Several studies have been conducted to test the energy ladder hypothesis. Hosier and Dowd

(1987) conducted a study in urban Zimbabwe using a multinomial logit model, the result revealed that although economic

factors do affect fuel choices, a large number of other factors such as culture, social desirability and security of supply are

also important in determining household fuel choice (Hosier and Dowd, 1987).

An investigation of household energy choices for a sample of households‘ residing in the city of Bangalore uses a binomial

logit model (Reddy, 1995). A binomial logit is defined as a model, which determines the choice between each pair of energy

sources. This model according to Reddy (1995) helps to explain the shift in the energy pattern of consumption of different

Very low

income

Low income Middle income High income

Electricity

Natural gas

Kerosene

Gas, liquefied petroleum gas

Ethanol, methanol

Coal

Charcoal

Wood

Crop waste, dung

Solid fuels

Non-solid

fuels

Increasing prosperity and development

Incr

easi

ng u

se o

f cl

ean

er,

more

eff

icie

nt

an

d m

ore

con

ven

ien

t fu

els

for

cook

ing

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fuels used for cooking and water heating. The findings confirm that urban households‘ ascend an energy ladder and the

choice is determined by income. However, other factors worth noting that play a significant role in fuel switching amongst

households‘ is family size and occupation of head of the household (Reddy, 1995).

A similar study in India also employed a multinomial logit framework to represent household fuel choice (World Bank,

2003). However in the World Bank model households‘‘ decisions concerning the choice of both cooking and lighting fuels

are dealt with together. The World Bank took a closer look at a choice set that consists of all the key alternatives to different

energy sources combinations used by a household. The objective of this model was to study the effectiveness of the existing

price subsidies in facilitating a shift to cleaner and more efficient fuels like kerosene and LPG. The results showed that

subsidies are unsustainable in meeting social policy objectives and disproportionately favours the rich (World Bank, 2003).

The study done in India shows that degree of urbanisation has been shown to influence energy consumption such that

households‘ living in larger cities consume more electricity than the inhabitants of cities with less than one million

inhabitants (Horsier and Kipondya, 1993). According to (Madubansi and Shackleton, 2005) this is also true in South African

context where larger cities and townships have well developed infrastructure and sufficient supplies of electricity. As a

consequence, better employment opportunities that exist in large cities also enable households‘ to allocate more of their

income to modern fuels. However, the limited employment opportunities limit electricity consumption in poor urban

townships in South Africa (Madubansi and Shackleton, 2005). The changes in the consumption patterns in low-income urban

households‘ disprove the energy ladder model as they continue to consume energy sources at lower end of the ladder (Davis,

1998).

The energy ladder model has been criticized, since there is widespread use of multiple fuels for a particular purpose (such as

cooking) which results to fuel stacking for a given purpose (Davis 1998; Heltberg 2005).

3.0 DATA AND METHODOLOGY

This section presents the data source, followed by the specification of the model and description of the exogenous variables.

3.1 Data Source:

This study was carried out within Gombe State, located on Latitude 9030' and 12

030N and Longitude 8

045' and 11

045E in the

North East Region of Nigeria-West Africa.

The data for this study was obtained from a survey of 500 households‘ in 3 Local Government Areas of Gombe State; they

are Akko, Yamaltu – Deba and Gombe representing each senatorial district. The study was conducted between February

2009 and January 2010. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was employed to select the households‘ of the study. In the

first stage, the households‘ were clustered into three: metropolitan, urban and rural with a distribution of 1 metropolitan, 2

urban and 4 rural areas. These were selected at random at this stage, and then the households‘ in the selected local

government areas were sub-clustered on the basis of high, medium and low income to see the impact of income in

determining the likelihood of households‘ to demand fuelwood. The procedure yielded a sample of 523 households‘.

Questionnaires were administered to the 523 households‘, during the process of cleaning the data, 9 questionnaires were

found to be missing and 14 questionnaires were rendered invalid due to one or more key variables missing or inconsistent

information and were discarded. The remaining 500 were valid. The data collected relate to households‘‘ sociological and

economical characteristics and their expenditures.

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3.2 Model Specifications

The data collected was analysed first using the simple descriptive statistical methods of percentages and graphical

representations, followed by estimation of the binary choice models.

The study uses multinomial logit model to estimate the significance of the factors believed to influence a households‘‘ choice

of cooking fuel in Gombe State of Nigeria. Multinomial logit model describes the behaviour of consumers when they are

faced with a variety of goods with a common consumption objective. The choice of the model was based on its ability to

perform better with discrete choice studies (McFadden, 1974 and Judge, et al, 1985). However, the goods must be highly

differentiated by their individual attributes. For example, the model examines choice between a set of mutually exclusive and

highly differentiated cooking fuels such as fuelwood, kerosene, cooking gas, and electricity. If only two discrete choices

have to be analysed, the multinomial logit model reduces to a binomial logit model.

The probability that a household chooses one type of cooking fuel is restricted to lie between zero and one. The model

assumes no reallocation in the alternative set and no changes in fuel prices or fuel attributes. The model also assumes that

households‘ make fuel choices that maximize their utility (McFadden, 1974). The model can be expressed as follows:

Pr [Yi = j] =

j

j

ij

ij

X

X

0

)exp(

)exp(

………………………………………………………..(1)

Where:

Pr[Yi = j] is the probability of choosing either kerosene, cooking gas or electricity with fuelwood as the reference

cooking fuel category,

J is the number of fuels in the choice set,

j = 0 is fuelwood,

Xi is a vector of the predictor (exogenous) socio-economic factors

(variables)

βj is a vector of the estimated parameters.

When the logit equation in equation 1 above is rearranged using algebra, the regression

equation is as follows:

Pi = )....(

)....(

11

11

1 vvo

vvo

xbxbb

xbxbb

e

e

………………………………………………….(2)

The equation used to estimate the coefficients is

In [i

i

P

P

1] =b0 + b1x1 +…bv xv + µi................................................................................................................... (3)

From equation 3, the quantity Pi/ (1 – Pi) is the odds ratio. In fact, equation 3 has expressed the logit (log odds) as a linear

function of the independent factors (Xs). Equation 3 allows for the interpretation of the logit weights for variables in the

same way as in linear regressions. For example, the variable weights refer to the degree to which the probability of choosing

one fuelwood alternative would change with a unit change in the variables. For example, e bv(in equation 2) is the

multiplicative factor by which the odds ratio would change if X changes by one unit.

The model follows from the assumption that the random disturbance terms are independently and identically distributed

(McFadden, 1974). In addition, Judge et al (1985) shows that even if the number of alternatives is increased (from 2 to 3 to 4

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etc) the odds of choosing an alternative fuel remain unaffected. That is, the probability of choosing the fuel remains the same

if it is compared to one alternative or if it is compared to two alternative fuels. The dependent variable is the cooking fuel

choice (fuelwood, kerosene or cooking gas) with fuelwood as the reference choice. Estimated coefficients measure the

estimated change in the logit for a one-unit change in the predictor variable while the other predictor variables are held

constant. A positive estimated coefficient implies an increase in the likelihood that a household will choose the alternative

fuel. A negative estimated coefficient indicates that there is less likelihood that a household will change to alternative fuel.

P-value indicates whether or not a change in the predictor significantly changes the logit at the acceptance level. That is, does

a change in the predictor variable significantly affect the choice of response category compared to the reference category? If

p-value is greater than the accepted confidence level, then there is insufficient evidence that a change in the predictor affects

the choice of response category from reference category. The exogenous variables are defined in Table 1.

Table 1: Definition of Exogenous Variables

S/N Variable Meaning Value

1. EFW Monthly Expenditure on Fuelwood in N

2. EKR Monthly Expenditure on Kerosene in N

-

3. ECG Monthly Expenditure on Cooking Gas in N

-

4. PSC Price of Stove or Cooker in N -

5. INC Monthly Income of Household in N

-

6. SZH Size of Household (No. of people in a

residence)

-

7. HHE Head of Household Education 1 if head of household has at least post

secondary education, 0 otherwise.

8. HWE Housewife Education 1 if housewife has at least post secondary

education, 0 otherwise.

4.0 EMPIRICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this section, the empirical analysis starts by the presentation of the demographic characteristics of the 500 households‘ in

other to gain insight into their socioeconomic features which may guide the analysis. The data collected was analysed first

using the simple descriptive statistical methods of percentages and diagrammatic representations, and then the consumption

function of households‘ was estimated using the multinomial logit choice model.

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4.1 Socio-Economic Characteristics of Households’

S/N VARIABLE FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGES

1. Location (place of origin)

Rural 399 79.8

Urban 101 20.2

2. Gender (sex of the respondents)

Female 380 76

Male 120 24

3. Age (Age in years of the respondent)

Below 20 13 2.6

20-30 75 15

31-40 227 45.4

41-50 152 30.4

51-60 21 4.2

61 Above 12 2.4

4. Occupation (occupation of respondents)

Civil servant 120 24

Farmer 215 43

Trading 110 22

Others 55 11

5. Size of households‘

1-3 78 15.6

4-6 126 25.2

7-9 207 41.4

10-12 36 7.2

13-15 28 5.6

Above 15 25 5.0

6. Level of education of respondents

Informal only 187 37.4

Primary 56 11.2

Secondary 115 23

Diploma/NCE 85 17

Higher National Diploma (HND) 17 3.4

Graduate 31 6.2

Post graduate 9 1.8

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4.2 Households’ Cooking Choice

Fig.2 indicates that the dominating source of household cooking energy in the study area is wood-energy, which is used by

70% of the households‘. Kerosene is mainly used by 21% of the households‘, 7% of the households‘‘ uses cooking gas and

only 2% utilize other forms of cooking energy. Although Electricity was included as energy options in the survey

questionnaires, it recorded zero response as none of the respondents utilized it as their main source of fuel but rather as a

backup.

Fig. 2 Distribution of households‘ by cooking energy choice

4.3 Household Wealth and Fuel Choice

Fig. 3 depicts the relationship between a fuel choice and a households‘‘ wealth (income). Fig 3 shows that the low-income

households‘ are the main users of fuelwood with an average income of about N 8000.00. The reversed pattern is observed for

kerosene and cooking gas. The use rate of kerosene and cooking gas is highest among the richest household with an average

total monthly income of about N15000.00 for kerosene and N35000.00 for cooking gas indicating a movement to cleaner

fuel as income increases.

Fig. 3 Energy Choice and Household Income

70%

21%

7%

2%

Fuelwood

Kerosene

Cooking gas

Others

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

Fuelwood Kerosene Cooking gas

Me

an t

ota

l ho

use

ho

ld m

on

tnly

in

com

e (

Nai

ra)

Energy types

Income

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4.4 Multinomial Logit Analysis for Kerosene and Cooking Gas as Compared to Fuelwood

Variable Kerosene Cooking gas

Parameter

coefficient

p-value Odds

ratio

Parameter

coefficient

p-value Odds ratio

Expenditure on

energy for cooking

0.653

(0.152)

0.182 1.921 0.081

(0.002)

0.966 1.084

Monthly Income

of Households‘

(INC)

0.863

(0.419)

0.039 2.370 0.848

(0.172)

0.494 2.335

Size of household

(SZH)

-0.304

(0.031)

0.000 0.738 -0.212

(0.961)

0.028 0.808

Price of stove or

cooker (PSC)

-0.892

(2.742)

0.000 2.44 -0.003

(0.200)

0.000 0.997

Head of household

level of education

(HHE)

0.418

(0.207)

0.090 1.519 0.232

(0.018)

0.214 1.261

House wife level

of education

(HWE )

0.689

(0.295)

0.019 1.99 0.613

(0.230)

0.022 1.845

Households‘ increased consumption of each fuel type as their total expenditure increased. The price of stove or cooker has a

negative estimated coefficient for both kerosene and cooking gas, implying that an increase in the price of stove or cooker

will decrease the tendency of using fuelwood alternatives and increase the probability of using fuelwood.

Household size has a negative estimated coefficient for both kerosene and cooking gas. This supports the theoretical

expectation that larger households‘ will prefer to use fuelwood since it is comparatively cheaper to use fuelwood to cook for

many people as it has a lower consumption rate per unit of time compared to kerosene and cooking gas (Punder and Fraser,

2006). Moreover, it is believed that larger household sizes may mean larger labour input, which is needed in fuelwood

collection. Larger households‘ are more likely to have extra labour (for example children‘s labour) that can be used to freely

collect fuelwood from public fields and thus may lower the price of fuelwood relative to alternatives which cannot be

obtained freely.

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The level of education concurs with the hypothesized theoretical expectation of a positive effect on the choice of kerosene

and cooking gas due to an increase in the level of education of respondents. This may be associated with the assumption that

higher levels of education are associated with better income.

A statistical significance test was conducted using the standard error test and also by considering the respective probabilities

of the variables. Standard error test entails a situation where if the standard error of a parameter is smaller than half the

numerical value of the parameter estimate, then the variable is statistically significant (Koutsoyiannis, 2004). From the

regression result the variables EKR, ECG, INC, HHE and HWE are statistically significant and therefore explain the

probability of choosing kerosene and cooking gas as compared to fuelwood. The variables SZH, and PSC, were found not

significant in explaining the probability of choosing kerosene and cooking gas as compared to fuelwood.

The count r squared is about 45%, which implies that about 45% of the determinants of energy choice are being accounted

for by the explanatory variables. A goodness of fit test was conducted using the Hosmer-Lemeshow and Andrew statistics.

The results are H-L (12.47) and Andrew (72.39) shows that the regression exhibit a very good fit (though coefficient of

determination is of secondary importance in probability modelling, since they are not meant for forecast).

5.0 CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of wealth distribution on energy consumption, and to analyse the

determinants of households‘‘ energy choice for cooking in Gombe State, Nigeria. The Multinomial logit model was

employed to identify the determinants of energy for cooking as well as sociological and economical variables influencing

major energy sources in the study area.

Empirical investigation revealed that apart from household income, household cooking energy choices also depends on

sociological and other economical factors such as household size, levels of education and the prices of appliances for a

particular energy type. The study shows that fuelwood is by far the fuel of choice for a majority of households‘ in the study

area. The study further revealed that as household income increases, households‘ switch to cleaner fuels; from fuelwood to

kerosene as implied by the energy ladder hypothesis. The dependence on fuelwood in this region has far-reaching

implications on the environment: deforestation, soil erosion and declining agricultural productivity and lose in the natural

habitat.

In the light of the above, the study suggest that apart from improving household income, policy design also need to focus on

other factors in addressing the challenges of energy exploitation. One solution to the environmental consequences of

unsustainable wood exploitation requires that modern cooking fuels be made more accessible and affordable and fuelwood

and charcoal use be made sustainable.

Moreover, improvement in income and education enhance the likelihood of the household to increase the consumption of

other fuels. This will help reduce consumption of wood, implying a reduction in the pressure of wood resources and

contributing towards mitigating deforestation.

Furthermore, measures should be taken by stakeholders in the energy sector to develop and promote renewable, clean

technologies to lessen the burden of economic activities on the ecosystem, reduce pollution and meet the demand of

households‘. Such measures should promote the use of energy carriers other than biomass as well as the use of biomass in

modern ways.

Finally, since fuelwood is the fuel of choice by a majority of the rural populace, a permanent programme of reforestation that

provides for the planting of wood species that are ecological suitable, socio-culturally compatible and economically feasible

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and products harvested under controlled and best practices should be adopted by the government as an avenue to address

energy demand issues and other-interrelated concerns like food production, soil erosion and desertification. These can be

achieved through establishing micro-credit facilities for entrepreneurs, especially women groups, for the establishment and

operation of commercial fuelwood lots and the production of renewable energy devices and systems.

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