Nigeria ranks among the highest producer of crude oil and natural gas in Africa. However it is estimated that 84% of Nigerian households lack access to quality cooking and lighting fuels (see here). The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that 100 million m3 of firewood is consumed annually in Nigeria, resulting in deforestation rate of over 3.3% per year. Besides, approximately 83 million Nigerian live in extreme poverty with severe food insecurity, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. They spend over 25% of their income on polluting energy sources, for cooking and lighting. Household air pollution from burning charcoal, firewood, candles, kerosene and paraffin causes approximately 129,500 premature deaths each year in Nigeria (see here), mostly women and children. 

Founded in 2018 and is based in Lagos, D-OLIVETTE is a Carbon Trust & Footprint Africa Certified Domestic Bio-refinery social enterprise that builds and distributes technologies that turn biodegradable and organic waste into clean energy, reusable clean water, and more food. The company produces an Internet-of-Things enabled and smart domestic digestion technology that turns organic waste into clean energy and more food. Its main product, the Kitchen Box™, turns organic waste into 100% safe and clean cook-fuel and electricity. 

D-OLIVETTE's core products are: 

• Kitchen Box: designed for rural women; turns household organic waste into clean fuel and connects with existing gas cookers or combustion engines to produce co2-neutral heat or electricity. 
• The Bio-Tank: engineered for small-holder farmers; transforms large quantity of organic waste into organic fertilizer or animal feed and clean fuel to generate clean electricity. Its function is to help reduce farms operation cost by over 50%. 
• The Bio-Station: a hybrid system that transform every single organic waste in a farm or rural settlement into clean energy and bio slurry production hub. 
• The 360 Chatbot: assist rural women and small-holder farmers to best decision: For example, Mangoes Waste (100kg) + Cow Waste (100kg) = 154kg of fish feed + Biogas (32kg). 

D-OLIVETTE's impact include: 

• 20,000 rural women using the D-Olivette’s Kitchen Box daily. 
• Over 5,000 rural Nigerian women reselling excess biogas and organic fertilizer. 
• Helped recycle over 100,000 metric tons of organic waste into renewable energy, clean water, and organic fertilizer since 2018. 
• Prevented emissions of 4,050 tons of CO2eq and preserved over 100,000 trees in 2021 (German Government & Stitching Corporation). 
• 55% of the c-suite positions occupied by women. 

Wood fuel remains the main energy source for cooking and heating for 56% of Nigerian population (see here), representing nearly 30 million households and more than 100 million people. These constitute D-OLIVETTE's potential customers. It aims to position the Kitchen Box™ as an indispensable household appliance that transforms household organic waste into biogas for safe daily cooking gas and electricity in a seamless way, while getting certified by ISO. 

In the 12 coming months, the company plans to scale by increasing its output. To finance its growth, D-OLIVETTE is seeking USD 500,000 of seed funding. To date the company has raised USD 72,000 in grants. 

D-OLIVETTE is a finalist of the EU-UNDP’s Growth Stage Impact Ventures (GSIV) in Nigeria, in the consumer goods sector. The GSIV takes the Nigeria SDG Investor Map one step further by identifying through a highly competitive process enterprises in Nigeria that have developed at-scale products and services that contribute to the SDGs while achieving commercial success and are committed to embed impact considerations into decision-making. By putting the spotlight on and supporting these ventures, UNDP aims to bring forward evidence of the existence of pipelines of investable ventures that can advance the transition to SDG-aligned investments in Nigeria and more broadly, in Africa. 

Learn more and get in touch with D-OLIVETTE: https://d-olivette.io