By Juliet Jacob
Unilever Nigeria is pushing a partnership to help social enterprises Wecyclers expand its plastic waste collection with Bridges with $2m.
It expressed concern over the increasing rate in plastic waste helped by a surge in consumption of plastic beverages,foods, etc.
The African Health Report, AHR, recalls United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) stated that consumption of plastics in Nigeria increased by 116.26 per cent within a period of 15 years to 1.25 million tonnes.
In a press briefing to seal the deal and mark its centenary celebration, the partnership set up through an innovative ”Development Impact Bond” structured by French investment bank, Societe Generale, will allow Wecyclers to create hundreds of jobs to scale up operations that takes up plastics waste out of the environment to be used as raw materials for industries.
The managing director of Unilever Nigeria,Mr Carl Cruz, Unilever Nigeria and Wecyclers have been working together since 2014 as part of Unilever’s waste to wealth campaign designed to help local organisations work out ways on how to create value and jobs from the reduction, collection, recycling, reusing of plastic waste.
Furthermore, under the partnership, seed funding from Unilever, UK Government and EY joint project called Transform helped Wecyclers expand their successful franchise and collection model.
The unique Development Impact Bond provides a solution to that challenge. It includes social, environmental, and financial targets, which will see Wecyclers collect more than thousand tonnes of plastic waste over the next five years, create over 700 jobs in recycling franchises across Nigeria, and improve the incomes of thousands of of waste sorters.
He, however, stated that, as an entrepreneurial social enterprise, Wecyclers lacked access to the long-term funding needed to build on that progress and significantly scale up this model.
He stated that, ”This funding is a major step forward for us in our work to ensure plastics waste stays out of the Nigerian environment”.
