- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide €64 million in financing to the Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company (ECCBC).
- The funds will support the climate strategy of the North and West African subsidiary of the American Coca-Cola Group, which aims to reduce water and energy consumption and accelerate waste recycling.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has agreed to provide Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company (ECCBC) with a finance package worth €64 million. This package includes €52 million in loan and equity funding. The Alafaq Aljadida Programme for Private Sector Development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with €3.5 million, and the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Programme (BCFP), with €8.5 million each, will contribute the remaining €12 million in finance.
The Coca-Cola Group’s bottler in North and West Africa will continue to carry out its climate program with the help of this new cash. Through technology advancements, solar energy, and trial recycling programs in 13 countries across North and West Africa, ECCBC seeks to reduce its water, energy, and waste footprints.
To do this, ECCBC intends to install solar power generation systems in bottling plants, upgrade or replace production lines to make them more effective, implement a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) collection and recycling program in Algeria, replace chillers in its distribution network to save energy, and introduce solar chillers for retail sales in Ghana and Morocco.
In the seven bottling facilities and 44 manufacturing lines owned by ECCBC in Africa, this is anticipated to increase water use efficiency by 20% by 2030. By the same day, the water used to manufacture beverages will be 100% locally replenished thanks to ECCBC’s climate initiative. The company employs 5,000 employees directly and 35,000 indirectly, and it touches over 160 million users. ECCBC’s approach will improve the energy efficiency of its facilities by 25% by 2030 and reduce its carbon footprint by 25% over the next seven years.