Meet 2015 TEF Alumni, Olabisi Akanbi Who is Improving the environment through integrated waste management practice
Funding for Integrated Waste Management Business: As of 2018, around 59 percent of the waste generated in Nigeria was informally disposed. These informal disposal methods include open dumping, unregulated landfills, composting, and dumping into channels, streams and rivers. These constituted a nuisance and served as an avenue for several forms of pollution, and environmental degradation thereby jeopardizing the health of the masses.
Identifying this problem
Olabisi Akanbi decided to provide a solution by setting up a business that collects, reuses, recovers, and recycles waste products. EMSMAT uses branded metal drums, plastic wheeled bins, and cellophane waste bags as storage devices and to evacuate solid waste from their clients every 7 days interval. We have started operation on a pilot scale since September 2012 by using hired vehicles before procuring our own truck which are been loaded and offloaded manually. Every client gets registered by filling out our registration form with a registration fee of N3,000 and receives the waste bin in less than 24 hours.
The Integrated Waste Business Solution
Our price range according to a major market segment in our customer base is as follows: Single Household/family dwelling (N500), Multifamily dwellings (N1,000), Light industries like bakeries, eateries, etc (N2,000), Small Hotels, banks, mini estate (N5,000), Big Hotels, Hospitals (N10,000) and among others. There are 4,197 clients in the area.
At full capacity by procuring at least two (2) numbers of fairly foreign used (Tokunbo) waste compacting trucks at (N4,900,000) each totalled (N9,800,000) to evacuate at least 1,200 Clients on weekly basis with the support of TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION PROGRAMME, the company will realize a monthly turnover of (N4,111,200) with about 15 employments will be newly created.
“My business is changing the attitude of indiscriminate dumping of refuse on waterways, drainages, uncompleted buildings and even on roads by the citizens of Keffi Nasarawa State Nigeria. We offer waste bins to Keffi community to curb the menace caused by the indiscriminate dumping of refuse, we collect this waste on weekly basis from individual premises, sorting, processing the recyclable waste materials and dispose non-recyclable materials for farmers as fertilizers.”
Although his business operation started on a pilot scale in 2012, there was need for funding to scale up his business and increase his revenue. The $5000 TEF grant has been the beginning of his business success. He has created 6 new jobs and has increased his revenue to $4500. His waste management business has also been beneficial to the environment as the child mortality rate has been reduced as over 10,000 people in the communities where they work now have access to a safe, clean and healthy environment. He also conducts public sensitization about how to maintain personal hygiene and safe environment.
ABOUT THE TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFconnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.
