Bboxx, a data-driven super platform, has launched clean cooking technology which will cheapen and scale clean cooking across Africa to help eliminate household air pollution.
The new Bboxx solution, the ‘Smart Cooking Valve’, will address multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals by significantly reducing household reliance on harmful biomass fuels such as charcoal; providing affordable clean energy; improving health outcomes; and contributing to carbon emissions reduction in Africa.
The Smart Cooking Valve aims to increase access to cleaner, faster and more affordable LPG cooking solutions for low-income households that currently depend on harmful and inefficient fuels.
Each device deployed helps one household to stop using charcoal – saving up to six trees and two tons of CO2 per household each year.
The solution also aims to help eliminate household air pollution, which causes a wide range of ill health effects and is responsible for an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year, with women being the most greatly affected.
Bboxx’s unique approach to expanding access to clean cooking solutions combines cutting-edge technology with innovative financing options. The Smart Cooking Valve is a one-of-a-kind, digitally connected, gas-locking valve device remotely controlled based on customers’ mobile money payments which attaches directly to the LPG cylinder.
Pay-as-you-cook
Bboxx is combining its aims to expand access to clean cooking solutions with a new financing option: its new ‘Pay-as-you-cook’ model. The model enables customers to access gas on a daily rate, freeing them from the high upfront cost of purchasing a full cylinder – while granting them access to as much gas as they need within each daily period.
This solution offers a cheaper alternative to traditional charcoal basins and could also reduce the average daily cost of cooking energy by 10 per cent.
Mansoor Hamayun, co-founder and CEO of Bboxx, said: “We are igniting a revolution with a tech-driven solution that brings affordable, clean cooking into the heart of every household in Africa.
“Our mission is to demolish barriers, paving the way for the economically marginalised to embrace cleaner, efficient cooking. This is not just about reducing fuel costs or mitigating the health risks of harmful pollutants – it’s about fuelling economic growth and empowering communities, transforming lives and unlocking a prosperous, equitable future.”
Bboxx has already successfully launched the product in both Rwanda and DRC. The firm has plans to continue to roll out the product across all 10 of its operational markets in 2024.
Bboxx plans to partner with LPG companies to scale access to clean cooking LPG to reach more than 10 million households by 2028, impacting over 50 million people, and saving over 60 million trees every year.
