Determinants of household energy consumption choice in Rwanda

Abstract

Energy consumption has been increasing in developing countries and play a crucial role in the lifestyle of millions of human beings in recent decades. Energy accessibility is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as in Rwanda. Considering access and energy use there is a substantial difference among households with different socio-economic characteristics. However, the key factors of that inequality remain a subject of debate among different scholars all over the world. In the case of Rwanda, there is insufficient empirical evidence to provide a full understanding of key factors determining household energy consumption specifically cooking fuel choice. This study contributes to that problem by examining the key factors of household energy consumption choice in Rwanda. This study employed a multinomial logistic regression model to examine the key determinants of household energy consumption in Rwanda and it has specifically focused on cooking energies amongst households by using the EICV5 dataset. The regression analysis has mainly considered only three cooking fuels in Rwanda namely: firewood, charcoal, and gas. The marginal effects of each explanatory variable have been computed to show the probabilities of each in determining the outcome variable. The study findings show that area of residence, age, marital tutus, ownership of dwelling have a significant effect on choosing gas as cooking fuel. On other hand, the choice to use charcoal is significantly influenced by residence, education level, and ownership of the dwelling by household. The study reveals that use firewood and charcoal are still mostly used in Rwanda as cooking fuels across the different socio-economic classes. The use of gas is still low even in urban regions. The findings suggest that government should emphasize increasing clean and modern cooking energy among households through subsidies to both gas distributors’ companies and poor households to enhance the use of cooking stoves to mitigate the health problems that arise from using traditional fuels.