The Government of Rwanda adopted in 2019 a National Cooling Strategy (NCS) provides context and identifies priority interventions to optimally address Rwanda’s growing needs for space conditioning and refrigeration. The strategy include mandatory minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) for air conditioning and refrigeration products sold in the country, product labels to help consumers understand the energy use of the products that they are considering, and a financial mechanism to encourage the purchase of the highest performing products – which may be more expensive at the store but cost far less over their lifetime through savings on utility bills.

As part of its strategy to implement the NCS, the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), in partnership with Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc, has initiated the Rwanda Cooling Finance Initiative (R-COOL FI, hereafter “the initiative”) which aims at offering on-bill financing to make energy-efficient and climate-friendly refrigerators and ACs available and affordable for end use electricity consumers. The basic structure of the initiative is presented in the figure below.

The initiative allows EUCL’s customers to repay a loan for energy efficient cooling products via their electricity bill. Under the initiative, the customers select a qualifying refrigerator or air conditioner through a participating vendor. The mechanism, through which the customers ‘loans will be paid, will be detailed and agreed upon by the financial partner (Banque Populaire du Rwanda), EUCL and the participating vendors.

Proper collection and recycling of used refrigerators and air conditioners, product testing, and consumer awareness campaigns will help to ensure compliance and promote this opportunity.