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Most urban households in Ghana cook on charcoal, using traditional charcoal stoves made of sheet metal. These stoves are polluting and inefficient, and the cost of charcoal is a significant proportion of household income. Most of the wood used to produce the charcoal comes from unsustainable sources, so charcoal production contributes to both deforestation and greenhouse gas production. Toyola Energy was set up to bring cleaner stoves and other energy products to households in Ghana.
Toyola Energy won a 201 1 Ashden Award in recognition of its success in producing and selling efficient charcoal stoves throughout Ghana and beyond.
Toyola Energy Limited was founded in 2006 by Suraj Wahab Ologburo, a former accountant and Ernest Kwasi Kyei, an engineer, both of whom had been trained in stove production under the Ghana Household Energy programme (GHEP). They obtained a loan from E+Co to start commercial production and sales, providing work to 77 other artisans including some trained under GHEP.
Further loans and carbon finance have enabled the growth of the business, which by April 20 1 1 had five production centres in different parts of Ghana and one in the neighbouring Republic of Togo.
In 2009/10 Toyola Energy had an income of US$550,000, 72 percent from stove sales and 28 percent from carbon finance. It employs five people directly and provides work to a large number of self-employed artisans. It has a 90 percent shareholding in KT ceramics that makes the stove liners, and also has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Toyola Solar, that sells photovoltaic systems.
Toyola Energy produces and sells efficient charcoal-burning stoves. Independent selfemployed artisans make the metal stove bodies and the ceramic liners to Toyola specifications, and assemble and finish the stoves. Toyola sells stoves directly, via dealers and also through local marketing agents.
The technology
The Toyola Coalpot stove has an hour-glass-shaped metal body. The charcoal is burned in a heat-retaining ceramic liner, which has holes to supply air, and let the ash fall down. An adjustable door in the metal body controls the air flow and therefore the rate of burning.
The stove top is designed for the round-bottomed pots that are popular in Ghana, using robust metal pot-rests that give a narrow gap round the pot base and good heat...