The Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (FMO) is teaming up with BIX Capital to open a $10 million line of credit to C-Quest Capital (CQC). The company will use the facility to distribute environmentally friendly cook stoves in 15 sub-Saharan African countries.
Good news for C-Quest Capital (CQC). The Washington, D.C.-based company now has a $10 million line of credit for its operations in sub-Saharan Africa. The facility was made available by the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and BIX Capital, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based portfolio manager.
The $10 million line of credit will finance the implementation of CQC’s clean cooking program. Under the program, the Ken Newcombe-led company aims to distribute environmentally friendly stoves to 7 million households in 15 sub-Saharan African countries, including Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola.
Reducing deforestation
The CQC program, which runs through 2026, is expected to benefit 28 million Africans, an important step toward universal access to clean cooking. Currently, more than 900 million sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to clean cooking according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Yet traditional cooking methods using wood and charcoal are responsible for 490,000 premature deaths per year, according to the same source.
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FMO estimates that the CQC project will reduce deforestation while avoiding 140 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This initiative comes at a time when investors are increasingly interested in clean cooking in Africa. A few days ago, the Mechanism for Modern Cooking in Africa (MCFA) launched a call for projects to finance clean cooking enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Jean Marie Takouleu
