After providing off-grid solar domestic systems, Bboxx is back with an innovation that should facilitate access to biogas and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cooking in rural and urban areas. The startup plans to install 5,000 Bboxx Cook systems in Rwanda by 2020. This pilot phase should then be extended to the rest of Africa, where 86% of the population uses fossil fuels that are harmful to man and the environment.
Cooking in an environmentally friendly way using biogas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will no longer be a luxury. It is a commitment from ” Bboxx Cook “, a tailor-made cooking solution, providing clean cooking services in urban and rural areas. The new ecological find was launched by Bboxx, a startup developing innovative product services for a greener world, on July 19, 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda.
If Bboxx’s invention comes in two versions, LPG and biogas, the objective is the same: to facilitate access for all to an environmentally friendly kitchen. Thus, Bboxx Cook LPG’s offer will have to overcome the obstacles to LPG adoption by removing the initial costs ($80 to $100) of the cooker cartridge and bulk. This is made possible by the “pay-as-you-cook” technology for urban households and commercial customers. For example, Bboxx Cook biogas complements clean cooking solutions (which can cost households more than $600), by providing rural households and public institutions with a financing plan that includes repairing and maintaining the digester that produces the biogas.
Finally, these systems are connected via the Internet to Bboxx Pulse™, the digital platform that allows the management of customer payments, financial products, technicians and employees at remote sites.
Bboxx Cook targets a market of more than 860 million consumers in Africa
Bboxx’s innovation is aimed at a large market in Africa. According to a 2016 World Bank study, 3 billion people worldwide lacked access to clean cooking. And sub-Saharan Africa’s share has risen from 585 million in 2000 to over 860 million by the end of 2016, representing more than 70% of the African population. A percentage that Bboxx now estimates at nearly 86%.
A market all found on which Bboxx would like to rely to develop. The company has already received funding from the Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP), a multi-donor fund that provides grants and seed funding to initiate clean energy projects, technologies and innovative companies.
At the launch ceremony of Bboxx Cook in Rwanda, Patrice UWASE, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure, reiterated the government’s commitment to continue working with the private sector to develop markets and provide people with clean cooking technologies. Bboxx Cook arrives in the country at a time when the government is developing strategies to reduce by half the current dependence on biomass, which stands at 79.9%.
Boris Ngounou
