AFRICA – BIX Capital, and FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, is jointly providing a US$10 million facility to C-Quest Capital to further strengthen its Clean Cooking activities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For many years, BIX Capital, an investment vehicle initiated by Shell Foundation, Cardano Development and Fount, has provided loans to C-Quest Capital (CQC), a successful social impact project developer providing transformational carbon projects, including clean cooking – which improves the livelihoods of families at the Base of Pyramid.
This new facility will enable CQC to further invest in its clean cooking programme in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
As a result of funding from this facility and other sources of capital, a total of 7 million households will receive CQC’s double cookstoves by 2026, reaching c.28 million people in over 15 SSA countries including Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola.
Furthermore, this investment will deliver substantial Climate Impact: the total GHG avoided until 2026 will accumulate to 140 million tCO2e.
According to the latest IEA data, more than 2.6 billion people lack access to clean cooking , relying instead on firewood, kerosene or coal as their primary cooking fuel.
The lack of access to clean cooking remains very acute in sub-Saharan Africa where the number of people without access is increasing as population growth outpaces provision efforts.
Almost 490,000 annual premature deaths are related to household air pollution from the lack of access to clean cooking solutions, with women and children the worst affected.
Forest degradation and deforestation is another serious consequence of the unsustainable harvesting of fuelwood.
FMO has been a cornerstone investor in BIX Capital since 2018 and has supported in BIX’s Carbon Receivables Finance proposition.
FMO provides the funding to both BIX and CQC through the Access to Energy Fund (‘AEF’), a fund FMO manages on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
BIX brought FMO to the table to realize the first co-investment opportunity between the two parties. By partnering with BIX and CQC, FMO has closed an impactful investment in the Clean Cooking sector, an important subsector within FMO’s Energy strategy.
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