Case study · 2026-10-29

Fixing Clean Cooking From The Ground Up: Why Traditional Savings Circles (Equb) Work Better Than Banks.

By Tigist Abriham Woldeyohannes

Abstract

In Ethiopia over 90 percent of our families still cook with firewood and charcoal every single day. Even though electric mitad stoves and small solar units are already produced and sold in our local markets mothers cannot afford the high upfront prices and commercial banks never give loans to informal women without land collateral. This field perspective explains how traditional rotating savings circles (Equb) can be used to finance clean cooking equipment directly without bank interest or debt transforming daily charcoal costs into clean home assets.

Full article

WOMATE PUBLICATIONS & RESEARCH GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVES Fixing Clean Cooking From The Ground Up: Why Traditional Savings Circles (Equb) Work Better Than Banks Tigist Abriham Woldeyohannes Founder, Project Equb Energy | Alumna, She Leads Climate Mentorship (Cohort 2) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia October 2026 FIELD SUMMARY In Ethiopia, over 90% of our families still cook with firewood and charcoal every single day. Even though electric mitad stoves and small solar units are already produced and sold in our local markets, mothers cannot afford the high upfront prices, and commercial banks never give loans to informal women without land collateral. This field perspective explains how traditional rotating savings circles (Equb) can be used to finance clean cooking equipment directly without bank interest or debt, transforming daily charcoal costs into clean home assets. If you wake up early in almost any neighborhood or town in Ethiopia, the very first thing you smell is woodsmoke. More than 90% of Ethiopian homes still rely on solid firewood and charcoal just to bake daily injera and make stew. For mothers and young girls, this is not a statistic, it is their everyday morning routine. They walk for miles along roads and hillsides carrying back breaking bundles of branches, only to spend hours squatting beside open flames. By evening, their eyes are burning red and they develop persistent chest coughs. Daily fuel burden: Rural and peri urban women carrying heavy firewood loads for miles across rough roads to cook meals. Physical strain and time loss: Hours spent harvesting and transporting biomass fuel, directly limiting time for education and small business work. When international climate summits talk about energy transition in Africa, the discussion is almost always focused on utility grids and international financing packages. But on the ground, that conversation misses the family kitchen. In reality, clean technology already exists in local workshops and road stalls: electric baking mitads, coil hotplates, and compact solar home systems are sitting right in local market streets. Local market availability: Locally fabricated electric coil stoves and energy efficient units ready for household cooking in Addis Ababa markets. Modern electric mitads: Specialized baking plates designed for injera that eliminate toxic indoor smoke entirely. "The problem on the ground isn't that clean cooking gear doesn't exist. The real barrier is how everyday mothers are supposed to pay for it without collateral." The Collateral Barrier for Everyday Women For a woman selling vegetables or running a small roadside food stand, paying 8,000 to 14,000 Birr upfront in cash for an electric mitad is simply impossible. At the same time, commercial banks are out of the question. Banks demand official salary payslips, registered land deeds, or vehicle titles before opening a loan file. Informal workers and mothers do not have those documents, so they get turned away immediately. WOMATE Publications & Research Field Case Study Page 1 of 3And when small microfinance institutions do step in, their interest rates frequently run between 25% and 35% once processing fees are added. Forcing a struggling mother into high interest commercial debt just so she does not poison her lungs while feeding her family is neither fair nor practical. Using What We Already Trust: The Equb System Instead of waiting for outside bank loans or complicated donor grants, the real answer is already active in our communities: the traditional Equb. An Equb is an informal rotating savings circle where neighbors or shopkeepers pool a fixed amount of cash weekly. Every round, one member receives the collected pool to make a major household investment, continuing until every participant has received their share. Figure 5: Project Equb Energy Framework • Complete community initiative integrating traditional Equb rotating finance, clean electric stoves, solar access, and 200 household pilot goals. Field documentation: Women in our community meeting together, managing the shared cash box and keeping transparent records. Project Equb Energy model: Rotating weekly deliveries of clean stoves and solar equipment without bank loans or interest. Because the Equb rests entirely on neighborhood trust, social accountability, and shared responsibility, there are no default issues, no loan paperwork hurdles, and zero interest charges. Through Project Equb Energy, we connect these trusted savings circles directly with local stove manufacturers: Group Buying Discounts: Instead of one person buying alone at high retail price, our Equb group negotiates bulk discounts directly with local fabricators and solar distributors. 1. WOMATE Publications & Research Field Case Study Page 2 of 3In Kind Equipment Payouts: Rather than giving cash payouts which often get redirected to urgent daily household emergencies the weekly payout is delivered directly as an installed electric mitad or solar lighting package. Repurposing Weekly Fuel Money: Families in our area already spend 400 to 600 Birr every single week on bags of charcoal and bundles of wood. By redirecting that exact routine fuel money into their Equb pot, they own a clean appliance within weeks without taking on debt. What Donors and Climate Programs Need to Understand We are currently setting up our first community pilot with 200 households in Ethiopia. What this work confirms is very simple: when clean energy matches the financial habits and cultural systems people already trust, adoption is fast and voluntary. If international platforms and climate programs like WOMATE want to see real clean energy adoption in African homes, they must stop looking only at formal commercial banking models that lock out informal women. Grassroots families don't need debt traps; they need partners who respect, de risk, and scale the informal community mechanisms that have sustained our neighborhoods for generations. Real climate action starts right inside the family kitchen. About the Author: Tigist Abriham Woldeyohannes is a management graduate and youth leadership ambassador based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is the founder of Project Equb Energy, dedicated to accelerating clean cooking and solar adoption through community owned rotating savings networks. 2. 3. WOMATE Publications & Research Field Case Study Page 3 of 3