Founded in 2016, Green Industry Plast (GIP) Togo wins first prize in the Afri-Plastics competition on sustainable plastic waste management organized by the British foundation Nesta Challenges and supported by the Canadian government. The Lomé-based start-up will share a £4.1 million ($5.2 million) prize with seven other winners from Rwanda, Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya.
In 2023, the Afri-Plastics competition organized by the British foundation Nesta Challenges will reward eight solutions for the recovery of plastic waste from African start-ups. These are the mobile application “Toto Saffi” which offers Rwandan parents reusable diapers for babies and Chanja Datti based in Nigeria. The company created by Funto Boroffice collaborates with Abuja’s factories to give a second life to household waste and thus challenge waste pollution in the Nigerian capital.
But the project that most appealed to the Afri-Plastics jury was that of Green Industry Plast (GIP), which is setting up plastic waste collection and sorting units in Togo’s major municipalities. “We want to provide each player, especially the population and municipal workers, with the tools to recycle and improve public health and living conditions,” says the start-up founded by entrepreneur Gado Bemah.
Other winners include Kenyan start-up Mega Gas Alternative Energy, which is also the winner of the seventh cohort of the Start Up Energy Transition Award (SET Award). The clean cooking startup converts Nairobi’s waste into biogas to provide poor households with alternatives to charcoal and firewood, whose combustion promotes air pollution.
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There is also the Congolese company RD Full Development Agency (FDA), which has taken on the mission of raising awareness among the people of Bukavu, where tons of plastic pollute Lake Kivu. Together, the eight winners of the third Afri-Plastics competition will receive technical support for the expansion of their solutions in sub-Saharan Africa and financial support worth a total of £4.1 million ($5.2 million) from the Government of Canada.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
