A joint venture between Vitol and Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund has been established to engage in a variety of carbon avoidance and removal initiatives, the fund announced on Wednesday.
An initial $50 million had been pledged, according to the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and both companies were in the process of making a final investment decision on the initial projects.
First proposed in July of last year, the new company, CarbonVista, would invest only in initiatives in Nigeria.
The first investment, according to the report, would go towards a household energy efficiency programme focused on enhancing water filtration and clean cooking.
Many Nigerians are now obliged to supplement their cook stands with wood and charcoal due to high LPG pricing. In 2021, many individuals stopped burning wood as part of an effort to promote public health.
According to the NSIA, the daily use of wood and charcoal for cooking and water purification by around one billion people in sub-Saharan Africa is a significant contributor to the region’s annual loss of nearly 4 million hectares of forest.
According to the NSIA, the joint venture will give rural families effective tools that will cut down on their usage of wood fuel and the associated greenhouse gas emissions, as well as save them money and time. The company will first deploy up to 200,000 devices, it was said.
