Africa clean‑cooking updates

Africa’s clean-cooking push is moving on three tracks at once: national policy in Ghana, fuel-market planning in Cape Town, and local delivery in Kilifi County, Kenya. (worldbank.org) In Ghana, the World Bank approved a $250 million Program-for-Results operation on June 13, 2024 to back energy-sector reforms and expand access to clean cooking. The program supports the Energy Sector Recovery Programme, which the Bank said is meant to improve utility finances and increase access to cleaner cooking solutions. (worldbank.org) Ghana’s government has paired that financing with new policy work. The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition held a two-day National Clean Cooking Policy and Strategy workshop in Accra on March 20, 2025, calling it a milestone in the country’s clean-cooking plans. (energymin.gov.gh) The targets are specific. A World Bank program document says Ghana is aiming for universal access to modern energy services by 2030, including adoption of 2 million efficient biomass cookstoves and 50% access to liquefied petroleum gas for cooking by 2030. (documents1.worldbank.org) Cape Town is now the venue for the industry side of that push. African Refiners and Distributors Association Week 2026 is running from April 13 to April 17, 2026, and the association’s published program says the event includes discussion of large-scale adoption of liquefied petroleum gas for clean cooking. (arda.africa 1) (arda.africa 2) That focus reflects the scale of the gap across the continent. The International Energy Agency said in its 2025 Africa update that four out of five households in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to clean cooking, even after $2.2 billion in commitments made around the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa. (iea.org) Kenya is working from a separate national plan. A World Bank background note says Kenya’s National Clean Cooking Strategy covers 2022 to 2028 and is designed to help deliver universal access to clean cooking by 2030. (documents1.worldbank.org) Kilifi sits inside that national effort. Kilifi County’s investment portal says the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project is being used to provide electricity and clean-cooking solutions in remote and underserved areas, under a program jointly implemented by the Ministry of Energy, Kenya Power and Lighting Company, and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation. (invest.kilifi.go.ke) Kenya still has a long way to go on household adoption. World Bank data show 32% of Kenya’s population had access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking in 2023, the latest year listed in the database. (worldbank.org) The through line is simple: governments are writing targets, fuel suppliers are organizing around liquefied petroleum gas, and counties such as Kilifi are where those plans are tested stove by stove and household by household. (energy.go.ke)