NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Bboxx, a data-driven super platform, is today announcing the successful launch of a pioneering clean cooking technology aimed at scaling clean cooking across Africa, starting in Rwanda and the DRC. This ground-breaking solution – the Smart Cooking Valve – is designed to 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 across the continent.

The Smart Cooking Valve facilitates 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 allows one household to stop using charcoal, and therefore avoids the cutting down of 6 trees and the emission of 2 tons of CO2 each year. In addition, it will help to 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 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. This is combined with the Pay-as-you-cook model, which 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 technology-driven solution is the most cost-effective device of its kind that allows to offers a cheaper alternative to traditional charcoal basins and reduces the average daily cost of cooking energy by 10%.

The new technology is powered by Bboxx’s proprietary operating system, Bboxx Pulse®, which allows Bboxx to monitor the clean cooking uptake at the household level – enabling full transparency and generating trusted impact and carbon reporting.

Bboxx has successfully launched the product in Rwanda and DRC and will 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 more than 50 million people, and saving more than 60 million trees each year.

Mansoor Hamayun, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer 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 to demolish barriers, paving the way for those who have been 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.”

Based on 5 years of Bboxx’s clean cooking developments in East Africa, the Pay-as-you-cook subscription model enables a behaviour change at the household level that promotes the sustained adoption of gas to fully displace charcoal. In addition, through an asset finance initiative, customers gradually acquire ownership of their LPG cylinder, further lowering the barriers to clean cooking adoption and building a more equitable model of energy distribution, where everyone, regardless of their economic background, can participate in and benefit from the clean energy transition.

Photo courtesy of Bboxx.