Tanzania has made a serious push for cleaner cooking, and its National Clean Cooking Strategy aims for 80 per cent of Tanzanians to use clean-cooking solutions by 2034. But the country still has a long way to go.
The 2023 Household Energy Consumption Survey, published in September 2025, found that 65.5 per cent of households in Mainland Tanzania used firewood for cooking, 44 per cent used charcoal and 24.6 per cent used liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. These figures describe the fuels households reported using, not one exclusive choice, which helps explain why they add up to more than 100 per cent.
Firewood and charcoal can appear cheaper, particularly where people gather or produce them for their own use. Their cost can look very different in towns, where transport, levies and other charges are added before they reach a buyer. The survey does not fully capture that rural-urban difference.
Yet the costs of relying on polluting fuels are not only financial. The World Health Organisation warns that wood, charcoal and other inefficient fuels create harmful household air pollution. It identifies LPG, electricity, biogas, natural gas and alcohol fuels among the clean options at the point of use.
The problem, however, is not simply one of awareness. Moving households away from firewood and charcoal also means confronting habits, convenience and culture. A nudge is a small change that steers people towards a choice without taking other options away or imposing a major financial penalty.
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Some people say food cooked over charcoal or firewood tastes better than food cooked with clean energy, a view reflected in online discussions and in reporting on cooking preferences in Dar es Salaam. Others worry about LPG running out at night, when a replacement may not be easy to find.
On social media, people often advise keeping a charcoal stove as a backup. Research on clean-cooking programmes elsewhere shows that households commonly combine, rather than fully replace, traditional and cleaner fuels when refill costs, supply concerns, food preferences and cooking needs are not addressed together.
Fuel for the way people buy
The behavioural challenge is also an economic one. Many Tanzanians buy what they need in small quantities, not always because they have no money, but because this suits the way household spending is managed from day to day.
At a shop in Kilombero, Morogoro, I found a 50-gramme bag of sugar alongside the one-kilogramme packages more common in urban shops. It is a small example, but it reflects a wider pattern: people often buy small portions of goods such as cooking oil and kerosene, using locally understood measures that fit their budgets and routines.
A 50-gramme bag of sugar on sale in Kilombero. Photo by the author.
This pattern is visible beyond household goods. Land may be described in paces, or miguu 20 kwa 20, rather than square metres. Food is often sold in bunches, or mafungu, rather than by kilogramme. These informal units are not simply disorder; they are ways in which buyers and sellers make transactions work in everyday life.
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That reality matters for clean cooking. Asking a household to buy a large quantity of food often assumes it has refrigeration and a stable electricity supply. In rented homes where tenants share electricity bills, a refrigerator can also create disagreements about who should pay more.
Similar pressures may affect the decision to buy an LPG refill in a larger quantity than a household can comfortably afford at once.
Right message, right product
The first nudge is about how clean cooking is presented. Cooking creators can show LPG and other clean options as convenient, safe and aspirational, while community conversations and humour can help make the change feel familiar rather than imposed. But messaging alone cannot overcome the cost of refilling a cylinder.
The NBS survey puts the average price of a six kg LPG refill at Sh24,000 in Mainland Tanzania in 2023. That cost is manageable for some households but can be a high one-off payment for people who make frequent, small purchases. The challenge is therefore to make clean cooking fit the rhythm of everyday spending, not merely to tell people that it is better for them.
A second nudge could be a purpose-designed, smaller portable gas canister that can be used for a day or a single cooking session, paired with a compatible stove. It should not be an ordinary aerosol can. Any such product would need to meet safety standards, be reliably available and be accompanied by clear instructions for use and disposal.
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A multipurpose stove that can boil, bake and roast could make the product more useful to households. The point is not to pretend that a smaller container alone will end reliance on charcoal. It is to offer an option that responds to the way many people already purchase and use everyday goods.
Clean-cooking policy should follow that logic. First, rethink the stove. Then rethink the container and refill system. If clean energy is to become part of daily life, it must meet people where they are, rather than asking every household to change its habits before the product changes to meet their needs.
Francis Nyonzo is a Fulbright Alumnus, economist and theorist. He can be reached at francisnyonzo@gmail.com. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
