Circular economy: Africa regenerates its resources

NAIROBI - The start-up Octavia Carbon specialises in ‘capturing’ carbon dioxide. M-Taka develops waste management solutions. Mr. Green Africa collects, processes and resells plastic. All three companies were founded in Kenya between 2014 and 2022. All three are part of the ever-expanding African circular economy sector. According to figures released by the African Development Bank, the sustainable ‘transformation’ of the continent’s economy could unlock market opportunities worth around 546 billion US dollars and create 11 million jobs by 2030.

The African Union, the organisation bringing together the continent’s 55 countries, is seeking to support this development with the launch in 2025 of the Continental Circular Economy Action Plan for the African Union (CEAP), an action plan developed in collaboration with the European Union to shape the transition to a circular economy over the decade from 2024 to 2034.

The CEAP forms part of Agenda 2063, the AU’s economic renewal agenda, which comprises a total of five pillar objectives: to promote ‘sustainable practices’ in sectors ranging from agriculture to industry; to strengthen waste management through local infrastructure and technologies; to create ‘millions of green jobs’, fostering regional cooperation and building ‘climate resilience’ to mitigate the effects of global warming on the continent that is most vulnerable and least equipped to cope with its consequences. This shift in economic focus goes hand in hand with two intertwined objectives on the agenda of governments both south and north of the Sahara: the optimisation of their own resources and the development of industrialisation, which is still lagging behind in the continent’s more than 50 countries, now linked within the unified framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area, set to launch in 2021.

Beyond the scope of the EAC, the continent is dotted with initiatives ranging from the South Africa Plastics Pact, launched in Pretoria in 2020, to transnational projects such as the roadmap drawn up by the African Development Bank, or regional legislative measures. One such example is the bill to harmonise the management of single-use plastics across the eight countries of the East African Community (EAC), known as the Prohibition of the Manufacture, Importation, Use and Sale of Single-Use Plastics Bill, or simply the EAC SUP Bill. The potential is as vast as it is untapped. According to an analysis by Invest Kenya, the Africa Legal Network (ALN) Kenya and TakaTaka Ni Mali, the waste sector in Kenya alone could generate up to $700 million by 2030.

“The bulk of it,” explains Ben Dixon of the consultancy firm Systemiq, “comes from transforming waste materials into resources for local industry, creating jobs and reducing dependence on imported raw materials.” Kenyan entrepreneurs, says Dixon, “are already leading this effort; the challenge now is to help them scale up”. The fundamental issue, “is not whether Africa has raw materials, a market or political ambition”, says Carlotta Dal Lago of Aln Kenya, the alliance of African law firms that drafted the “Sup Bill”. What is needed, she says, is a ‘regulatory framework’ that offers certainty to investors.