RMB Boosts African Carbon Business With Offset-Backed Loan

Rand Merchant Bank said a loan agreement based on the flow of future carbon credit income to a Microsoft Corp.-backed clean cookstove company takes it a step toward establishing its Africa-focused carbon finance business.

The loan to KOKO Networks, plus an undertaking for future financing, will help support will help support the expansion of a company that has supplied 1.1 million Kenyan homes with bioethanol fuel and cookers.

“It’s a deal which actually stands out as fairly innovative and specialized,” said Phil Norton, carbon finance lead at the Johannesburg-based bank, in an interview. “As an African investment bank ...