South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank(RMB) has announced a partnership with KOKO, a leading climate technology firm.
The objective of the partnership is to foster carbon business expansion across Africa.
The collaboration seeks to address a key issue since in Africa, over 900 million people rely on polluting fuels like charcoal for cooking.
This contributes to extensive deforestation, and causes more than 600,000 deaths annually.
This is due to household air pollution and other emissions that are comparable in scale to the global aviation industry.
The primary solution to this problem involves a continent-wide transition to cleaner and modern energy sources.
While giving his remarks about the partnership, Phil Norton, Carbon Finance Lead at RMB said,
“We are proud to partner with KOKO in supporting their continued rapid growth while bringing far more affordable and lower emissions energy to millions of people in Africa.
“As a pan-African investment bank, this deal fits well within our ambition to build a market leading carbon trading and finance business operating across Africa, serving both existing and new clients.”
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KOKO and RMB Powering Africa’s Clean Energy Revolution
KOKO plays a pivotal role in driving this energy transition by supplying bioethanol cooking fuel to over 1.1 million homes.
This fuel is distributed through a sophisticated network of KOKO Fuel ATMs located in numerous corner stores across urban Kenya.
Importantly, the resulting carbon revenues are shared with households, functioning as a non-governmental energy subsidy.
They facilitate even the poorest households’ switch to cleaner alternatives.
Greg Murray, CEO & Co-Founder of KOKO, commended RMB for its strong commitment to harnessing carbon to positively impact the lives of Africa’s citizens.
“We’ve been looking for an entrepreneurial banking partner that understands Africa, climate markets and technology.
“We are proud to embark on this long-term partnership with RMB to help accelerate the expansion of KOKO’s platform across Africa.”
Nigel Beck, Head of Sustainable Finance and ESG Advisory at RMB, added,
“Partnering with KOKO will help develop the African carbon market and will align closely with the Nairobi Declaration, Africa’s recently communicated strategy on using carbon as a mechanism to help finance Africa’s Energy transition.”
This declaration was formulated during the Africa Climate Summit in Kenya.
It outlines a strategy for using carbon as a mechanism to finance Africa’s energy transition.
It also reinforces Africa’s negotiating position at the ongoing COP28 climate summit.