Miriam Lifa’s homestead near Lunzu Trading Centre in Blantyre is a place to go.
She keeps it spotless and cooks smart using liquified petroleum gas (LPG).
“My home is tidy because gas cooks smart. No chopping firewood. No charcoal dust or ash. No smoke. No coughs. No itchy eyes,” she brags, boiling eggs for a late breakfast on her gas burner.
Lifa last used charcoal in December 2025, when a charcoal bag sold for K45 000 at Lunzu Market.
“The bag that lasts two or three weeks costs more than a three-kilogramme gas, which takes me two months,” she says
Lifa bought her LPG cylinder for K127 000, down from K140 000.
The Promoting Equitable Access to Clean Energy (Peace) project, funded by the European Union through Oxfam in Malawi in partnership with the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (Cepa), subsidised an array of clean cooking technologies to save forests and human health.
Lifa chose LPG to cut smoky fumes and energy bills.
“I cook in peace using gas, which is cheaper and more reliable than an electric hotplate with frequent blackouts. Our electricity bill totals about K20 000 monthly, but gas, worth K11 500, takes longer,” she says.
A 15% subsidy at work
However, a subsidised hotplate has become a difference between convenience and daily headache for Susanne Jafali and Samson Layison.
The couple with two children got the electric appliance at K15 000 instead of K79 000.
“I no longer worry about costly charcoal or firewood that depletes trees. I just switch on and start cooking straightaway. A K1 000 electricity token takes a week. Previously, I was spending that amount on firewood for cooking a meal,” she says.
Nearby, Halima Suwedi uses less firewood to prepare meals for her family of four and zibwente (coated irish potato snack) for sale.
“The budget for firewood has dropped from K5 000 to K1 000 due to a Smart Home cookstove, but my profit has grown from K4 000 to K25 000 as I cook more, faster and cleaner. The firewood burns completely, cutting sickening smoky fumes,” she says.
Suwedi says she spends more time selling her tasty bites than on the sickbed or nursing children bedridden by illnesses caused by air pollution.
Likewise, Agnes Zakaria has discarded the three sooty stones from her kitchen. She now uses a Chitetezo energy-saving cookstove, which almost halves the firewood consumed to cook a meal.
The clay stove retains heat much longer than an ordinary cookstove, users say.
“I don’t live in the stone age. I just need three to four pieces of firewood worth K1 000 to cook lunch or supper,” she says.
The energy props slow the burning of trees, which are disappearing faster than they are replaced.
Oxfam and Cepa empower communities to save forests and plant trees.
Since 2023, they have planted nearly 50 000 trees in communal woodlots, on the farm, at home and along the roads.
“We are promoting access to clean energy through affordable solutions, raising public awareness, advocacy and tree-planting. Our forests are under siege due to population pressure, especially the appetite for firewood and charcoal,” says Cepa advocacy and campaign programme officer Haswell Mollande.
Over 95 percent of households nationwide cook using firewood and charcoal, according to the 2018 census.
Bikes carrying charcoal bags for sale flash past in Kumponda Village, where lack of electricity sustains a vibrant market.
The Department of Energy reports that a quarter of the population is connected to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) grid.
However, electrification remains disproportionately low in rural areas where 84 percent of Malawians live.
The latest census shows only four percent of the rural majority have had electricity since 1980, when Escom rolled out the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme.
Energy poverty exerts pressure on forests amid unmet demand for clean cooking.
“We targeted 250 households getting the clean cooking technologies of their choice, but the subsidy has reached 290 since 2023. The demand remains high, with a waitlist of 170 households from nine villages,” says Mollande.
Unmet need
Clean cooking often come second to electricity supply at the policymaking table.
“People need reliable, clean cooking solutions, but they are not available or affordable. To close the gap, the country needs big clean cooking initiatives like Marep or the Malawi Energy Access Project funded by the World Bank,” says Oxfam project coordinator Kondwani Mubisa.
Rose Yusuf is among 50 Kamponda Villagers waiting for subsidised smart cooking technologies.
“Clean cooking is cool,” she says. “A simple Smart Home stove can save my money and time to better care for my family, business, crops and livestock instead of worrying about two bags of charcoal every month.”
