Zambia: BioLite secures $10.7m from Africa Go Green fund
Africa Go Green, managed by Cygnum Capital, has provided a $10.7 million senior debt facility to BioLite.
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Africa Go Green (AGG), the climate-focused debt fund managed by Cygnum Capital, has provided a $10.7 million senior debt facility to BioLite to finance the purchase and distribution of over 160,000 improved cookstoves across Zambia. The carbon credits generated by the project will be sold to Switzerland’s KliK Foundation under a mitigation outcomes purchase agreement.
“The facility is a pioneering example of how carbon projects can be financed. Where such projects have typically relied on grants, equity or upfront credit pre-purchases, this transaction is repaid from future carbon revenues – demonstrating that high-integrity carbon projects can be structured as investable, bankable assets. For a market that needs to scale quickly, that matters: debt financing widens the pool of capital available to developers and offers a replicable model others can follow,” Cygnum said in statement.
“Clean cooking is among the most underfunded climate solutions. In Zambia, where many households still cook with charcoal and firewood, BioLite’s cookstoves will cut fuel use and emissions while improving health and household economics; and disproportionately improving the lives of women and children especially in rural regions,” it added.
Laurène Aigrain, managing director of AGG, commented: “By pairing a compliance-backed Article 6.2 offtake with debt financing and an insurance overlay, AGG has shown a route from pilot-scale carbon projects toward something commercially repeatable – and in doing so, helped move the market a step closer to maturity.”
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