Workshop held to hand over activities in Mozambique

A workshop to plan the hand-over of ProBEC activities to Funae (Fund for Renewable Energy in Mozambique) was held on 27 July 2010 in Maputo, Mozambique and attended by representatives from ProBEC, as well as from its partner organizations ADEL and Kulima. Funae has been appointed by the Government of Mozambique to formally take over activities implemented by ProBEC post-2010. The output of the workshop was a clear roadmap on how the hand-over will unfold as well as an agreed calendar of dates and deadlines. It was agreed that activities from the urban programme (POCA stove), rural programme, biofuels- and carbon component will be transferred to Funae.

Funae informed the workshop that it has a target to facilitate the dissemination of 50 000 energy efficient stoves in the Mozambican market. This is above and beyond the stoves that will result from Funae’s take-over of ProBEC activities. Funae received funding from the World Bank that will be used to finance a variety of energy efficiency programmes, including the stove programme.

Two important principles were agreed. Firstly that Funae will appoint a local organisation to support and oversee the implementation of their stove programme. The company’s task will be to monitor implementation organisations to check if they deliver according to their contracts. Secondly it was agreed in principle, that existing partners (ADEL, Kulima, Carbon Checkers, Heifer International, World Vision, etc) will be retained in implementing a rural energy efficient stove programme. Funae will invite proposals for implementation via a formal tender process. FUNAE approved the model for contracting local partners and awaits approval from the Ministry of Energy, Administrative Court and the Ministry of Finance so that they can prepare the terms of reference for the local partners.

Rural programme expansion grows

Production of portable clay stoves is gathering pace in Nampula Province in northern Mozambique, with producers trained by World Vision International. Market forces show that there is more demand for portable clay stoves than the fixed mud stoves in the provinces of Nampula and Inhambane.

Work is being done to ensure efficient record keeping of stove production and sales, principally for mobile clay stoves since it has been established that it is very difficult to locate the stoves after they have been sold. Field monitoring of activities in the provinces of Manica, Sofala and Nampula is planned for the month of September.

POCA finds retailers

The ceramic charcoal stove promoted by ProBEC in urban areas, the POCA, is taking off with sales rising and more retailers having been engaged. POCA stoves are now being sold at four Petromoc filling stations in Maputo and one filling station in Xai Xai, capital of Gaza Province.

Marketing

ProBEC is currently participating in the national trade fair, the FACIM, which will improve on the marketing of ProBEC technologies, in particular, the POCA. The POCA also got a lot of exposure at the GTZ national assembly function, held in Maputo to strengthen ties between difference GTZ projects.

GTZ national assembly