The Modern Cooking Facility for Africa launches its first funding round to support the scale-up of clean cooking solutions

The Modern Cooking Facility for Africa (MCFA) will today open the Pre-Qualification stage of its first Call for Proposals in six Sub-Saharan African countries. MCFA is a new financing programme supporting access to and scale-up of higher tier clean cooking solutions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

With four billion people currently lacking access to sustainable and affordable cooking equipment, the lack of clean cooking solutions is a global challenge. Of these, almost 900 million people live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The MCFA programme offers results-based financing combined with catalytic grant financing for clean cooking companies to grow and scale up their businesses in the project countries. This will support the development of new markets for the clean cooking sector and accelerate access to modern, affordable and high-technology cooking equipment for urban and peri-urban consumers. The available funding for all country programmes is EUR 30.8 million.

“We are really pleased to open our first funding round to support the development and accelerate the creation of new markets for the clean cooking sector, identify clean cooking actors in the MCFA project countries and with their help increase access to higher tier cooking solutions for people in Sub-Saharan African,” comments Heli Sinkko, Programme Manager at Nefco.

Interested companies working within the clean cooking and renewable energy sector, locally registered or committed to being registered as such in one of the project countries, are now invited to apply for funding. Read more about the eligibility criteria at www.moderncooking.africa. Selected and contracted Cooking Service Providers will receive financial support based on agreed and reached milestones.

The aim of this first funding round is to enable the distribution of 420,000-840,000 electric, biogas and bioethanol cookstoves and associated fuels, providing access to clean cooking solutions for 2-3.8 million consumers.

A two-stage application process

The first Call for Proposals of the MCFA programme is divided into two stages: a Pre-Qualification stage and a Final Application stage. The purpose of the Pre-Qualification stage is to check Applicants’ compliance with the key eligibility criteria and minimum technical and financial capacity requirements.

The Pre-Qualification stage is open for applications through the application intake system. The application forms (in the system) will open at 16:00 Helsinki time (UTC +3) on 20 April 2022. The deadline for submitting Pre-Qualification applications is 21 June 2022 at 12:00 Helsinki time (UTC +3). The Pre-Qualification stage, including a review of applications, is expected to be completed by the end of August 2022.

Applicants are requested to send any questions regarding the call and application process through the application intake system at the latest by 18 May 2021 at 12:00 Helsinki time (UTC +3). Questions and answers will be made available to all registered Applicants in an anonymised and redacted form by 27 May 2022.

Sweden, the initiator and first donor to the programme through Sida, is supporting the programme with a total contribution of SEK 325 million (~ EUR 32.6 million). The aim is to provide over 3 million people in Africa with access to clean and affordable cooking solutions by the end of 2027. The goal is to develop the Modern Cooking Facility for Africa into a EUR 45 million programme with Nefco, the Nordic Green Bank, as facility manager.

For further information about the Call for Proposals:

Visit moderncooking.africa and register for the application intake system to apply for funding.

Download the Invitation Letter and Pre-Qualification Guidelines for more information on the application process and eligibility criteria.

For further information, please contact:

Ash Sharma, Head of Modern Cooking Facility for Africa, Nefco
Ash.sharma@nefco.int, Phone: +358 10 618 06 53

Heli Sinkko, Programme Manager of Modern Cooking Facility for Africa, Nefco
Heli.Sinkko@nefco.int, Phone: +358 10 6180 659

Anders Arvidson, Team Lead/Senior Advisor for Sida’s Power Africa Team
anders.arvidson@sida.se, M: +46 76 495 55 52

About Sida

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is the Swedish government agency for development cooperation. Sida strives to reduce world poverty by allocating resources and knowledge with the goal of making a difference for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. To achieve this, Sida collaborates with actors from civil society and universities as well as the public and private sectors. Sida’s activities are funded through Swedish tax revenue. Read more at www.sida.se

Photo: Jason Mulikita