King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) conferred the 2019 African Development Prize on Wecyclers, a Lagos-based waste recycling company, on Wednesday, 20 March.
The King Baudouin African Development Prize annually rewards outstanding contributions to development in Africa, initiated and led by Africans. It also seeks to draw public attention to the many inspirational stories, including challenges and successes, emerging from the African continent.
“We selected Wecyclers because we know that waste management is an issue in Lagos, Africa and Europe,” says Herve Lisoir, coordinator Africa and Developing countries, King Baudouin Foundation.
Founded by Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola in 2012, Wecyclers uses low-cost cargo bicycles called Wecycles to provide convenient recycling services to households across Nigeria. The startup has an incentice-based model that allows low-income families earn money as they tackle waste.
Essentially households sign up to the service and separate their recycle items ahead of a weekly collection by the Wecyclers team, who move around the city on a fleet of cargo-bikes. Participating households receive points for every kilogram recycled, which can be redeemed for electronics, household items, training classes and even money. In turn, the waste is sold to recycling plants that shred it to make products such as mattress and pillow stuffing.
The KBF prize also provides Wecyclers access to a wide network of stakeholders in Europe and the US who have the capacity to either provide mentorship or financial support.
Wecyclers plans to collect 5,000 tons of recyclables by 2020 and could be serving 500,000 households by 2023.
