ImpactAlpha, October 3 — Cooking with firewood or coal is dangerous to human health and the planet. In Rwanda, more households are looking to transition to more environmentally-friendly cooking methods.
UK-based off-grid solar company Bboxx has tapped a World Bank subsidy through the Development Bank of Rwanda to roll out clean cookstoves for a half-million households. Bboxx says the goal is to lower the percentage of households that use firewood for cooking from 80% to 42% by 2024.
“We won’t stop until every household in Rwanda can cook clean,” said Bboxx’s Mansoor Hamayun.
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Bboxx will deploy the subsidy via Bboxx Cook, its clean cooking brand, which makes clean cookstoves accessible to low-income households through microloans.
Bboxx’s roots are in designing and selling small-scale solar home systems in Rwanda. Today, the company provides pay-as-you-go water, electricity, gas and appliances, as well as loans to millions of low-income individuals in nearly a dozen countries.
