CamerGoGreen

Cameroon is a country located at the junction of West and Central Africa. It is home to around 25 million people. Environment and health are the main areas of this project, with Cameroon as a primary target, followed by surrounding countries concerned about pollution. E-waste, when treated inadequately, poses serious health issues since it contains hazardous components, including contaminating air, water, and soil, and putting people’s health at risk. Dismantling processes that do not utilize adequate means, facilities, and trained people pose additional threats to people and the planet. Poor E-waste disposal affects people's life in Cameroon.The solution that I propose, is based on the collection and purchase of IT assets from clients, reuse and recycle. This will significantly reduce the air pollution caused by hazardous material contained in electronics waste and then improve people's lives.

The problem that I am trying to solve is: Poor E-waste disposal affects people's life in Cameroon, which is directly related to the GM Prize on Circular Economy challenge. In other words, the lack of proper means of e-waste disposal affect the health of people. In fact, according to Our World in Data, the death rate attributed to ambient particulate matter air pollution in Cameroon is 55 deaths per 100.000 which cause billions of dollars in lost productivity annually. A survey showed that over 90% of electronics items go to the e-waste stream because they could not be repaired and only 6 % of them could be repaired. In Cameroon, the delivery of waste management services is a duty for Municipal Councils. They are responsible for the provision and maintenance of infrastructure, e.g. waste disposal facilities; financing of all activities related to waste management; street sweeping, collection, transportation and disposal of household wastes as well as the management of all public spaces and infrastructure. But the study revealed that they collect and treat the waste without any distinction. 

Because of the problem above-mentioned, the whole pollution of Cameroon is affected, with an emphasis on those living in urban areas, where the use of electronic devices is high. Among the policies that CamerGoGreen will implement, the e-waste awareness campaign will be one the crucial one. In fact, we will use well-known social media like Facebook, Whatsapp to establish a channel in order to sensitize the population about the importance of proper disposal of e-waste. Workshop, media, newspapers will also be some other mean to get the population involved.

My solution, CamerGoGreen is a company who will do the following things:

1: The collection of E-waste from clients and from donation: In fact, we will dispose some of dedicated designed e-waste dumpsters at every corner of the city. we will buy and reward customers based on their activities or electronic waste. Thanks to our adaptable designed e-waste pickup cars, we will go round the city to collect waste from the dumpsters or particulars. 

2: After collection, CamerGoGreen will partner with some companies specialized in the domain, such as ANCHOR NETWORK, a Japanese company or the weeecam association, recently installed in Cameroon for the reuse and recycling purpose.

3: reused devices will be sold to clients at a cheaper price. products obtained from the recyclying like gold will be sold to the market.

What makes my solution innovative lie in the following aspects:

1: a new process to dispose of e-waste in Cameroon: first and foremost, e-waste is still almost unknown in many African countries, Cameroon included. This new process of recycling e-waste is definitely an innovation for Africa.

2: New value for the customers: Cameroonian are not aware that they could even make money just by keeping their damaged electronic devices. CamerGoGreen will definitely bring a new value of their broken devices

3: a new service and job: CamerGoGreen will hire people with various skills from collection to e-waste recycling, opportunities which are not so far known in Cameroon.

In Cameroon, only one competitor exist and it has just been launched recently this year on March 2019. Though the process looks the same, mine is more innovative on the business model as well as in the collecting process. I will use existing social media to collaborate with some customers. We will use a specific tool to evaluate customers e-waste and reward them based on the value it will provide.

My solution utilizes the following technologies:

Whatzap and Facbook for the communication channel, for the sentization, for advertisement

E-waste pickup trucks to collect e-waste from place to place

Factory E-waste recycling machines

I think my solution is suitable for the context. First and foremost, I use existing and well-known technologies in Cameroon like Whatsapp and Facebook to raise the awareness as far as e-waste is concerned; also to establish a permanent channel to always communicate with the customers.

Then, because it is a new value brought to customers. a stipend amount of money will be given to customers in exchange to their broken electronic devices. These are two important factors which make me believe that my solution is addressing the problem. 

My solution is serving three-quarter of the population of Cameroon living in urban areas. Moreover, will employ roughly 25 people during its first year of implementation. Within five years, because of the expansion of CamerGoGreen in the other parts of Cameroon and other neighboring countries, I expect my solution to serve half of the population of Cameroon living in urban areas and at least a quarter of the population in the expanded countries, with 250 people employees.

My goal within the next year is to physically establish CamerGoGreen in Douala city, which is the economic capital of Cameroon. Then within the next five years, expand first to other Cameroon's cities such as Yaounde, Bafia, Bafoussam...then in other neighboring countries such as Chad, Gabon...

The main existing barriers for me to accomplish these goals within the next years are finance and a certification to operate as an E-waste recycling Center.

To overcome those barriers, I intend to start a small scale first. For example, just open an E-waste collection Center which will allow me to just collect waste and stock them. This will not require an enormous amount of money to obtain. A loan from friends, personal savings,for example, could help to finance it. Then, Partner either with local entities or foreign ones for the reuse and recycling aspects. As for the Certification to operate as an authorized e-waste center, I will attend require training or exams needed for that purpose.

For the first three years, 30 people will work in CamerGoGreen.

10 people, shift workers to pickup and managed e-waste

5 drivers 

5 people in the office staff

6-7 engineers in the recycling factory

2-3 managers

In five years, we expect to expand and grow to 200 employees.

The skills that I and my team have are:

Experienced engineer in E-waste

Certified Company in E-waste (ANCHOR NETWORK SERVICE)

Leadership and managerial 

Entrepreneurship and innovation.

For the time being, I am mainly partnering with ANCHOR NETWORK SERVICE Company, which is a Japanese Company based in Tokyo seasoned in the same process. First, I am learning how the process is done, much more on the technical aspect, like dismantling and sorting motherboard for example. Then, we are trying to figure out how to effectively and affordably leapfrogging it to Cameroon first, and then to other neighboring countries. Also, we are thinking about the design of trucks, with ISUZU Motor as the potential manufacturer. I will also visit ECO PANASONIC TECHNOLOGY company this August, another Japanese company dealing with electronic recycling to further my knowledge. 

My Business model is mainly based on Business to Business (B2B), Business to Government (B2G), and Business to the individual (B2C)

B2B: electronics and telecommunication  companies  (MTN/Orange/Nextel Cameroon), Camtel, ...etc

B2G: different ministries of the government

B2C: individual and small startups 

CamerGoGreen will resell recycled devices at a low price to this customers, will compensate with a stipend amount of money individual in possession with valuable broken devices, will sell product obtain from the recycling like gold to the public.

On top of collecting electronic assets from customers, CamerGoGreen will also obtain assets from the donation. The initial funds to launch the company could be obtained from our partner or potential investors. for a small size corporation, an investment of $69000 is needed. Thanks to the new value added to the market that CamerGoGreen will produce (reuse devices at a cheaper price, gold obtain from the recycling), we expect to keep sustainable. We expect to start making a profit of 11% on the second year, Break the even the fourth year, and have a return on Investment of 35%-65% in between the fourth and the fifth year. 

Solve Can help overcome the barrier of Partnership and funds. In fact, I would like to start with a medium size to make a big impact. For that, I will also need a certain amount for the funds, and I believe that the addition received from Solve to mine or partners will help me overcome that barrier. Also, Solve can tremendously help by providing me with assistance on a new business model or the technical aspect to make the business more robust and sustainable.

I would like to partner with organizatoin dealing with business and  recycling in general. I would like to have a win win partnership if possible. 

I and my team will utilize the prize to effectively turn the concept into practice. By that I mean, Launching CamerGoGreen, multiply e-waste awareness, expands and much more. Some of the crucial activities we will start with are:

Engage with technical partners for the reuse, reduce and recycling part

Reach a win win agreement to open an office (CamerGoGreen) in Cameroon.

Engage with local authorities and procedures (Ministry of Environment)

Engage with customers (Government, telecommunication companies ...)

Open CamerGoGreen office

Hire people

Collect e-waste

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Sell to customers

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