Rentaa

Rentaa is a platform which enables creatives rent out their dormant gadgets to other creatives who need them, hereby creating a circular economy in the creative industry.

Rentaa is an online platform which connects people with dormant gadgets to people who need these gadgets, it is basically an online community which gives purpose to gadgets no longer in use due to the rapid release of new version of these gadgets hereby creating a circular economy in the country and reducing the land pollution caused by electronic waste. It runs as a webapp where individuals with this dormant gadgets can list out their gadgets for people who are interested to notice and then interested individual contact the gadget owner whose information is displayed on his/her profile to indicate interest, they agree on the means of exchange, price of use and return procedure. Then annually a training for underprivileged communities will hold getting donations of unused gadgets from individuals on the platform and volunteers from our community, we will be training the underprivileged communities creative skills and giving them gadgets they can use to own these skills.

We are trying to solve the issue of land pollution by electronic waste in Nigeria which haven generated 461.3 kilotons of electronic waste with approximately 71 kilotons of electronic waste imported annually, has little facilities to manage electronic waste and many opt for burning of these devices which releases harmful substances to the environment to worsen the case most of the dumping sites are within residential areas, when the electronic waste decompose harmful chemicals are released into the underground water and these conterminate both the water people drink and the food they eat leading to diseases like cancer, adverse birth outcomes, altered neurodevelopment,etc. The heart of electronic waste deposit in Nigeria is Lagos with a population of 17.5 million. 

Nigeria haven generated 461.3 kilotons of electronic waste with approximately 71 kilotons of electronic waste imported annually, has little facilities to manage electronic waste and many opt for burning of these devices which releases harmful substances to the environment to worsen the case most of the dumping sites are within residential areas, when the electronic waste decompose harmful chemicals are released into the underground water and these conterminate both the water people drink and the food they eat leading to diseases like cancer, adverse birth outcomes, altered neurodevelopment,etc. The heart of electronic waste deposit in Nigeria is Lagos with a population of 17.5 million. 

Rentaa will be reducing the amount of dormant gadgets as it is clear that gadgets not used by one person is the same gadgets another person needs, by connecting these two categories of individuals we hope to reduce the amount of gadgets disposed and through our annual training for underprivileged communities working in partnership with some recycling companies we will be organizing campaign for the donation of condemned gadgets to be given to these individuals for their skills development.

In the ideation stage of developing this solution, we conducted a survey with individuals who will be interested in using such a platform as Rentaa and we got a 96% positive response which informed us we were on the right track, moreover I have volunteered with an NGO called Gracit Foundation focused on training underprivileged communities on technical skills and they get annual donations of dormant gadgets to be given to these individuals for their development and we will be embarking on our testing phase where we will invite potential users to give feedback on the platform once the design is implemented

Rentaa is providing solutions to a variety of needs directly and indirectly. This needs include land pollution due to electronic waste which Rentaa will be reducing through the circular economy we will be initiating, Lack access to gadgets by creatives in need of these gadgets, Rentaa will also be correcting that as they will now have means of getting these gadgets and poverty amongst underprivileged communities, through the training program Rentaa will be empowering people from underprivileged communities out of poverty as they will be able to use these skills to earn a living.

We are in the conceptualizing stage as we have built the design for the platforms on figma and implementation of the design has commenced this will serve as an MVP to help us understand the needs of our users better 

Rentaa is a webapp and will later operate as a mobile app that runs on as a pair to pair market place connecting people with dormant gadgets to others who need these gadgets. People with dormant gadgets can list their gadgets on the platform and people interested in the gadgets can indicate interest by contacting the owners whose contact details are on the platform

We are working towards serving 200 people in the next year as we are yet to launch

Our impact goals are 

• To give 100 dormant gadgets new purpose and we plan to achieve this through the platform which will be connecting these two categories of individuals
• To train 50 underprivileged individuals creative skills providing them gadgets to own these skills, we will be achieving this goal by organizing a campaign for donation of dormant or condemned gadgets as we will be working in partnership with recycling companies in Nigeria to repair these gadgets and leveraging on our creative community for volunteers to train the underprivileged communities.

Our Progress is going to be measured by 

• the number of gadgets rented out 
• Number of gadgets listed on the platform
• Number of creatives indicating interest in gadgets
• Number of underprivileged individuals trained

Barriers hindering us from accomplishing our goals are financial barriers are major one as it informs the amount of publicity we will be able to make to drive the vision of which our goals need a lot of publicity, the other barrier is the consistent importation of electronic waste from other countries which would slow down the impact of our solution

First all members of the team are either recent or soon graduates and have had to do their final year project which requires the need of gadgets oftentimes which were not available or had technical issues and needed replacement. I volunteered with an NGO called Gracit Foundation focused on training underprivileged individuals technical skills and my co founder worked with a design company called dear designer aimed at training and mentoring upcoming creatives in the industry providing them resources they need. I am the business designer and team lead helping with strategy and direction of where the project goes, we have our lead designer who is assisting with the design of the platform and we have technical personnel who is helping with the implementation of the design then we have our business development lead who is assisting with business side of things and getting prospects 

We intend to partner with Hinckley a recycling company for electronic waste in Nigeria to assist with the repairs of damaged gadgets.

Rentaa is providing solutions to land pollution caused by electronic waste which is a major problem in the world and we are providing a means for economic empowerment through our training program, we hope to win the pozen social Innovation prize as it will help us scale our solution faster and reach more people