June 2019 Newsletter

GLPGP June 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to share with you the launch of an important new industry strengthening and gender inclusion initiative in Cameroon, supported by funding from the African Development Bank. This work builds on our policy advisory and national planning activities since 2015 to support Cameroon in implementing its National LPG Master Plan.

Our second-phase Cameroon microfinance program and first-phase Kenya microfinance program are now concluding, and both cases have demonstrated that consumer finance is effective in unlocking demand for LPG for cooking and can be commercially viable for local microfinance and LPG operating partners.

We continue to broaden and deepen our engagement with the international development community and industry, a highlight of which is our co-hosting and sponsorship of the third annual LPG for Development Summit, together with the World LPG Association.  The 2019 Summit will be held in Amsterdam on 24 September 2019. We hope you will join us there!

Please read on for more details on these and other Partnership developments, and as always, follow us on Twitter @globalLPG.

GLPGP has commenced work under a Technical Assistance grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for three LPG development projects in Cameroon.

(i) A new program to cultivate women’s entrepreneurship in the LPG sector. GLPGP will provide start-up support to help women establish community-level LPG distribution businesses, engaging more women in the LPG supply-chain. This program is expected to improve LPG accessibility in rural areas and among low-income households, and encourage more sustained LPG use.

(ii) Training and certification of LPG distributors. Best practices for an LPG distribution model will be developed, which can then be adopted by distributors across different regions of Cameroon. This project will work towards creating a Distributor Training Manual and formulating a certification process for distributors, to ensure effective and efficient LPG development in Cameroon. 

(iii) A nationwide safety audit for LPG filling plants. The audit will identify the shortfalls of existing safety requirements and steps to address them. It aims to strengthen Cameroon’s LPG regulatory environment and ensure compliance with safety standards. 

These activities are part of GLPGP’s ongoing partnership with the Government of Cameroon to implement its National LPG Master Plan.

The European Union (EU) through its Infrastructure Trust Fund, administered through German development bank KfW, approved the expansion of the GLPGP-led, multi-country Clean Cooking for Africa program to include Rwanda.  GLPGP, the program’s executing agency, will utilize EU grant funds to provide assistance to the Rwandan government and LPG industry to scale up LPG use to counter deforestation and forest degradation from heavy reliance on biomass fuels. Rwanda’s goals for this partnership are near-exclusive use of LPG for cooking in Rwanda’s major cities, and expansion of LPG use to 40% of the urban and rural population overall, by 2024. 

Phase II of our Bottled Gas for Better Life microfinance program in Cameroon is reaching its conclusion, with a repayment rate of more than 97% to date. 90% of the 503 participating households have completed all their loan repayments. Among the 471 households for whom data are currently available, average LPG usage has been an impressive 21kg per capita per year, well above Cameroon’s national average.

In the Kenyan Bottled Gas for Better Life pilot, survey data collection commenced in April 2019 and will be completed by the end of June. Available preliminary data showed that 90% of the 54 loan recipients had completed all their loan repayments by May 2019. The average LPG usage was about 12kg per capita per year, with stove stacking reported by 85% of respondents. 42% of the participants in Kenya reported difficulty in paying for LPG refills, compared to 31% of Cameroon Phase II program participants.

GLPGP’s Chairman, Kimball Chen attended the Sustainable Energy For All Charrettes held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 18-20 June 2019. The Charrettes were working sessions among high-level representatives of leading organizations involved in energy access, aimed at prioritizing specific pathways and actions to accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goal 7.

2019-2020 was declared the “EAP Year of Clean Cooking” at the OFID Energy Access Platform (EAP) Meeting on 14 May 2019. The EAP is driving efforts to close the clean cooking gap by helping scale access to truly clean fuels, such as LPG. GLPGP will have a leading role within the EAP in driving these efforts forward.

GLPGP’s Country Manager for Kenya, Elizabeth Muchiri, appeared on the widely-viewed Kenyan television program The Property Show, where she discussed the merits of LPG as the clean cooking fuel of choice for Kenyans, and how GLPGP is working with countries across Africa to scale access to this clean fuel. Watch the video:

UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the date: the third annual LPG for Development Summit, co-organized by GLPGP and the World LPG Association, will be held in conjunction with the World LPG Forum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in September. This year there will be a special focus on the role of LPG in clean cooking and improving health outcomes, in accordance with World Health Organization Guidelines for Emissions Reductions for Health, as well as their contribution to several Sustainable Development Goals and national development targets. Click here for more information and to register.

RECENT EVENTS

GLPGP Kenya Country Manager, Elizabeth Muchiri, represented the organization at the East Africa launch of the Modern Energy Cooking Services program in Nairobi. Ms. Muchiri spoke on a panel with other clean cooking experts from the World Bank’s ESMAP, SNV, Clean Cooking Alliance, and Practical Action.

GLPGP CFO John Hauge was a speaker at the 4th IEF-OFID Symposium on Energy Poverty in Cape Town, South Africa. Mr. Hauge participated in a panel session on ensuring access to clean cooking solutions – focusing on progress to date, how new solutions take into account social acceptance and affordability, and the role of LPG. His presentation covered key drivers of LPG market growth, and provided an overview and progress update on GLPGP’s microfinance programs in Cameroon and Kenya.

Renzo Bee, GLPGP Chair of Policy, Regulation & Development Advisory Group was a keynote speaker at the LPG West Africa 2019 Forum, a major West Africa regional LPG event held in Lagos, Nigeria. Mr. Bee shared insights on enhancing LPG affordability and availability in developing markets.