‘African Start-Up’ On CNN International Features Founder Of Nigeria’s First Recycling Company, Bilikiss Abiola

By Maryann Balogun

This week's 'African Start-Up' on CNN International features Bilikiss Abiola, founder and CEO of Nigeria's first recycling company, Wecyclers Corporation.

Abiola tells 'African Start-Up' how she's using her recycling business to help unemployed youth raise money to reach their goals, and also to encourage and educate Nigerians about waste management and the benefits of recycling.

She tells the segment: About fifty percent of the youths in Nigeria are unemployed because it is very difficult to find a job in Nigeria. So people see Wecyclers as a way to save money for some kind of goal. We help people who are saving money to go to college or saving to start a business. We have a localised model we operate at Wecyclers; our low-cost cargo tricycles which collect the waste from households that register with us. We put them on a weekly schedule for waste collection'.

Like any businesses, Abiola and the Wecyclers team still face many challenges. One in particular is actually making a profit from collecting recyclable materials. They practice an incentive system that rewards people with points that can eventually be cashed in for rewards.

'People don't really have access to waste collection, neither do they understand waste management and as a result they are affected by negative informalities like health, so to impact their economic situation, we are rendering our services to help improve the situation of people, ' Abiola adds.

Don't miss CNN African Start-Up programme which will air today, Wednesday, 28thMay 2014, on Global Exchange at 16:00.




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