Economic potential of briquette charcoal is endless – Zaacoal Chief

Amin Sulley, the founder of Zaacoal, a briquette producer company in Ghana, has said that the economic potential of briquette charcoal is highly enormous and endless.

He said the demand for briquettes was high on both the local and global markets,

making it a commodity of export and industrial worth.

Mr. Sulley said this in Wa when he facilitated a briquette production training for women organized by Upperlink Consult, a skills development and waste management organization, with support from the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF).

"The economic potential is endless. There is a lot of market opportunity locally, and if you want to export, there is a lot of export potential, and there is also a lot of industrial potential to it [briquette] because a lot of industries need it for their boilers," he said.

He said the proposition of a ban on the importation of lump wood charcoal by European markets by 2027 makes briquettes a viable alternative to the growing demand for coal as fuel for industrial and other uses.

"Briquette is obviously a better alternative to lump wood charcoal because, one, we are not cutting trees, we are not depleting the environment, and two, it burns hotter, it burns longer," he added.

Mr. Sulley stated that the local demand and consumption of briquette charcoal were also high because Ghana is predominantly a charcoal economy, intimating that it was even easier to access charcoal than liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity.

"There are certain foods that we eat that are well cooked on charcoal stoves. How easy is it to cook your regular banku or tuozafi on a gas stove? But we've seen our parents do that on coal pots for centuries.

"In advanced economies or even the big cities or hotels, charcoal-grilled chicken sells higher than fried or gas-grilled chicken," he explained.

Mr. Sulley added that cooking with charcoal has been proven healthy and environmentally friendly as compared to other fuels, which further makes briquettes a better alternative with high market demand.

The Chief Executive Officer of Upperlink Consult, Hamidatu Darimani, also indicated that her organization was determined to create a local economy around the briquette production value chain to provide employment and mitigate climate change.

"The West buys this briquette, and we have companies that export this briquette. In fact, our future plan, as Upperlink Consult, is to be able to produce this briquette to be consumed locally and also to export. I keep asking myself, Why do we have to cut down all these trees when there is an alternative—an alternative that can even help employ these women better and that saves the environment as well?" she said.

Prof. Darimani appealed to the donor agencies and the corporate world to support her outfit in setting up a commercial production plant that would be able to create jobs for people while reducing climate change impact in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The briquette production training for the women formed part of a six-month project by the Upperlink Consult with support from the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF).