Toyola's Efficient Stoves Cut Ghana's Smoky Kitchens

Founded in 2006 by former accountant Suraj Wahab Ologburo and engineer Ernest Kwasi Kyei, Toyola Energy manufactures ceramic-lined charcoal cookstoves that cut fuel use by roughly a third to a half compared with traditional coal pots, reducing indoor smoke and stove-related burns by around 90%. The company built its own layaway financing tool, the Toyola Money Box, so customers pay for stoves from the cash they save on charcoal, and it employs local women throughout its manufacturing and sales chain. Toyola now produces over 150,000 stoves a year from factories in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, and Senegal, a network its own reporting credits with eliminating over a million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, funded partly through registered UNFCCC and Gold Standard carbon offset projects.