Assessment of the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as cooking energy source among rural households in Badagry area of Lagos State

Abstract

The need to promote the use of clean household cooking energy source as well as propagating safe and sustainable environment to cut down the number of human lives lost to the use of unsafe, inefficient and unhealthy cooking energy sources has informed the introduction of the Lagos LPG initiative. This study assessed the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as cooking energy source among rural households in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos state. A multistage sampling procedure was used to sample 140 respondents from seven rural communities of Badagry Area of Lagos state. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents, these were analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means, and ranks) and inferential (Chi-square) statistics. The study revealed that the mean age of respondents was 34.18 years with majority being married (69.3%), Christians (60.0%), self-employed (83.9%), with average income of ₦14137.14 monthly and majority (91.4%) having household size of 1-8 persons. The use of LPG among respondents was low (38.6%) amidst high level of knowledge on the utilization of LPG (67.1%) and awareness of health risks associated with the use of alternative household cooking energy sources (70%). Major constraints limiting respondents’ choice of LPG were lack of fund to purchase LPG (𝑥̅=1.31), scarcity of gas at skid plants ((𝑥̅=1.29) and high cost of refilling gas ((𝑥̅=1.15). Respondents’ level of education (χ2=9.05) and households’ income (χ2= 11.55) were significantly related to the use of LPG. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that efforts be made to reduce the incidence of poverty by introducing poverty alleviation programmes to improve the standard of living of the people, palliative measures to ensure the affordability of LPG should be considered and the government should also revisit the delivery system for LPG to ensure that availability is enhanced particularly at designated skid plants.