GS10789 VPA66: Efficient and Clean Cooking for households in Nigeria

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Nigeria with confirmed additionality and no reversal events, but undermined by an unusually high volume of material findings (over 40), contradictory leakage and fNRB values across documents, and a 0% leakage deduction that conflicts with the monitoring report's 5% figure. The project delivered roughly 117% of its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the monitoring period, so over-crediting is not the primary risk; rather, the risk lies in baseline robustness, end-user awareness gaps, and documentation inconsistencies that weaken confidence in the underlying assumptions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Over 40 material findings and 30+ corrective actions identified by the VVB, including baseline fuel-type disputes (end-users reported charcoal use not captured in the baseline), stove-stacking ambiguity, and multiple SDG calculation errors
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% ('deemed negligible') in the verification report directly contradicts the monitoring report's 5% quantified deduction — the more conservative figure was not carried through
• ⚠fNRB value dropped from 0.9627 (local field method, 2024 verification) to 0.8497 (national default, 2025 verification), a ~12% decrease that substantially increases claimed fuel savings without a clear methodological justification in the extracted record
• ⚠Crediting period is inconsistent across documents: the monitoring report states 2023-02-12 to 2028-02-11, while the more recent validation report states 2024-10-02 to 2029-10-01, creating uncertainty about which period the ex-ante estimate of 358,068 tCO2e applies to
• ⚠End-users reported lack of awareness on stove functionality and fuel type, raising doubts about whether the assumed 85% usage rate and fuel-switching assumptions are realistic in practice

Credit Vintages