The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded a grant to the Growing Business Foundation to strengthen Nigeria’s plastic waste management value chain. The award is through the Coca-Cola Foundation’s Empowering Collectors Initiative. It improves the informal plastic waste collection, aggregation, and recycling process in Nigeria.
According to the Managing Director of Coca-Cola Nigeria, Alfred Olajide, the programme will run for about 24 months. Aimed at enhancing resilience by preventing the flow of plastic waste into waterways and landfills. All this through an aggressive and organized system, targeting about 25,000 MT of waste.
The President of the Coca-Cola Foundation, Saadia Madsbjerg, explained that the company aimed the initiative at creating an economic ecosystem. Supporting environmentally beneficial actions, but also providing women with skills and training in the waste management value chain.
The Founder of the Growing Business Foundation, Ndidi Nnoli-Edozie, lauded the Coca-Cola Foundation for the Empowering Collectors Initiative. “We are passionate about uplifting and empowering communities, making a difference in the poverty situation across the country. ”With ECI, we significantly impact the economically vulnerable and help in promoting a cilar economy” she says.
The initiative will also empower over 3,000 female collectors and micro aggregators across six states of Nigeria. All represent key hubs where increased urban migration and economic activity, coupled with a poor waste management system. The program seeks to help participants through their transferable skills program. Improving the earning capacity of the women by 200 percent of their current earnings of about $2 a day.
PUNCH.