Bottled Gas For Better Life provides microfinance loans to help low-income African families in Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana purchase equipment (filled 12.5kg or 13kg cooking gas (LPG) cylinder, double burner stove and accessories) needed to switch to clean cooking, replacing harmful, environmentally polluting solid fuels. This reduces the deadly effects of Household Air Pollution from smoke from cooking fuels like firewood, charcoal and kerosene.
4 million people die prematurely every year due to Household Air Pollution from cooking with biomass, wood and charcoal. Firewood and charcoal production also causes forest degradation. LPG's efficiency and completeness of combustion reduces climate-active pollutant emissions, and protects forests. While LPG fuel in many countries is equally or more affordable than dirtier cooking fuels, the upfront cost of LPG household equipment often prevents poorer families from switching.
LPG is a proven low carbon fuel for household cooking in developing countries, providing substantial benefits for health, climate and forest protection. Through innovative microfinancing solutions, Bottled Gas For Better Life makes LPG accessible and affordable to low-income African households, improving their lives and health by reducing the deadly effects of Household Air Pollution. Recipients of the microfinance loan pay a security deposit followed by six equal monthly repayments.
In Cameroon, 684 households (more than 3,500 people) have benefited from Bottled Gas For Better Life since 2017. In Kenya, 63 households (around 300 people) have received the loans to purchase LPG equipment. GLPGP's goal is to expand the program to build capacity of the local microfinance and LPG operating partners, eventually developing successful national LPG microfinance programs across Africa. This will facilitate penetration beyond the status quo where LPG businesses do not target the poor.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
