The National Launch of the RUWES Initiative held on the 10th of December, 2013 at the NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja. The event was chaired by the Minister of Environment, Architect Darius Ishaku. The Honourable Minister highlighted the importance of energy in every sphere of life stating that energy which is important in meeting our most basic needs of cooking, heating and lighting has been largely ignored. The Minister said that evidence suggests that widespread deployment of clean cookstoves and solar lighting systems under the RUWES Initiative with energy and combustion efficiency which are improvements over traditional dirty fuel sources could also potentially help mitigate adverse effects on human health, energy poverty, time, income savings and climate consequences.
The RUWES State Coordinators, individuals from FBOs, NGOs and CBOs who are the fore-runners of the RUWES Initiative in their respective states were decorated by the Honourable Minister of Environment, the Resident Coordinator UNDP, Mr. Daouda Toure and the members of the RUWES Advisory Board. Each State Coordinator received a RUWES branded Tricycle for ease of marketing their products. The contents of the tricycle included clean energy, numerous technologies for cooking, lighting and solar barbing kits.
The women were enjoined to be diligent and steadfast in the sale of the products and reminded that beyond business; they are advocates for change and are expected to preach to their fellow women to change their energy practices.