Smoke Gets in their Eyes: the Women Fish Smokers of Lagos

This case study is one of the outputs of a three-country study on “Enabling Urban Livelihoods Policy Making: Understanding the Role of Energy Services” in Nigeria, Brazil and the Philippines funded by UK’s Department for International Development’s Knowledge and Research Programme in 2005. The DFID financed Enabling Urban Livelihoods Policy Making: Understanding the Role of Energy Services Project is geared towards contributing to providing a holistic understanding of the role of energy services in sustainable urban livelihoods, as well as forming a basis for making policies that address these issues.  As part of this project, Friends of the Environment from Lagos, Nigeria surveyed 147 enterprises in four peri-urban communities in Lagos and Abuja. The enterprises chosen were fish harvesting/ smoking, cassava processing, pottery and akara (bean cake) frying.  These are all enterprises were women are active as owners and operators.  This article reports on the findings related to the women fish smokers from the Amukoko community in Lagos.

The main priorities that were identified by the women fish smokers were:

• Reconstruction of the field kitchen they use for fish smoking, which in most cases are unhygienic with old leaking roofs, and mud floors. 
• Improve the method of fish smoking without giving up wood as it gives a distinct taste.
• Lack of access to capital for investment in the business.
• Lack of leisure time - the only time they formally break from work is 3 hours a week, every Thursday, when the state government makes it compulsory for the women to clean their markets and surrounding.

Seedfunding case study Smoke in Their Eyes - Download