News

Tucked in the island of Rodrigues is small community of young people and mentors. At a glance this passes as a school, home or a community centre. Animal sheds on one corner, beehives, organic gardens on another and structures made of wood and concrete spread across a vast compound. Looking closely though, this institution teeming with young people doing different chores and with youthful life does not look like a school but rather a huge home. Welcome to Centre de Formation Agricole Frere Remi.

Many young people in some parts of the African continent turn to waste management as an ad hoc or extra job to make small money when they are struggling with unemployment, a South Africa entrepreneur has identified a silver lining in a rather stormy sky.

Intricately designed accessories on display in an exhibition stand in Nairobi portray craftsmanship infused with an African touch.

Decorated with images of the big five, the Kenyan flag and beautiful landscapes, the handcrafted leather products are a true celebration of Kenyan beauty. Jacob Mwangi, proprietor, Palm Prints African Artifacts, has gone beyond just churning out aesthetically appealing leather products, but also taken a step towards environmental sustainability.

By adopting sustainable agricultural practices, Herman Agathe has managed to increase his flock from 4 animals to 126 animals. He has pigs, goats, sheep, chicken, ducks and cows in his flock. Based in Roche Bon Dieu, Rodrigues Island, Herman is an exceptional 18-year old who has managed to reap benefits from his hard work.

Manisa Hotel is a 42-room hotel situated on the west coast of the island in the Flic-en-Flac area. The hotel uses a solar energy system (45.2Kw) and solar water heaters in all rooms. In addition, they practice rain water harvesting for gardening. With SWITCH Africa Green support, the hotel has conducted a 2 step Gap analysis which mapped the current operational and sustainable production and consumption practices and identified areas of improvement.

Christian is a 27-year-old alumni of Centre de Formation Agricole Frere Remy, which is a SWITCH Africa Green grantee. He has participated in different trainings on sustainable agriculture with a focus on chicken rearing. After his time at Frere Remy, he did not fully grasp the respon- sibility and the skill needed to run a farm.

Ciel Textile is a large scale company based in Port Louis, Mauritius that specializes in textile production. With a daily production capacity of 25,000 pieces, the company is considered a large scale producer in the textile industry. With SWITCH Africa Green support, the company carried out a baseline to understand the type of waste available. As a result, the company noted that plastic formed a significant amount of waste. This led the management to come to the decision of halting packaging of fabric in plastic to reduce amount of plastic coming in.

Euphorbeie Garden is a family enterprise that has been operational for 25 years focusing on growing exotic flowers. They participated in the SWITCH Africa Green training on floral arrangement under the sustainable horticultural training.

As a result of implementing the various concepts from the training, they have recorded increased revenues, especially in December when there were many events. Their clients include wed- dings, and other celebrations such as funerals and church flower displays. The enterprise also uses pots made out of coconut which help retain moisture.

Sept Etoiles Beauty Centre is comprised of a group of women entrepreneurs who were trained in making and using organic natural beauty products through SWITCH Africa Green support.

Comprising of 90 members, the entrepreneurs gained knowledge in making natural beauty products. As a result, customers have developed a preference of organic products to the inorganic products.

These entrepreneurs have created new business streams, recording good feedback from customers. They have also recorded a higher number of walk-in customers since introducing these organic products.

Cassava is one of the major foods consumed in Ghana. It is a major contributor to food security and livelihood in rural areas. Cassava is normally processed to flour using thermal energy before it is consumed or traded. In addition, the consumption of this product in schools, urban and rural areas across the country coupled with recent high demand of the product in other West African countries, makes the product a viable business venture. The community in Adaklu produces and cooks cassava (gari) for their own consumption and for sale.

The community in Adaklu produces and cooks cassava (gari) for their own consumption and for sale. They cook the gari and sell it as a processed product. They have been using traditional cook stoves until SAG introduced more efficient community stoves emitting less smoke.

This has resulted in better quality gari while making smoke-related diseases are a thing of the past. Notably, the cooking time has also significantly reduced.

Cassava is one of the major foods consumed in Ghana. It is a major contributor to food security and livelihood in rural areas. Cassava is normally processed to flour using thermal energy before it is consumed or traded. In addition, the consumption of this product in schools, urban and rural areas across the country coupled with recent high demand of the product in other West African countries, makes the product a viable business venture. The community in Adaklu produces and cooks cassava (gari) for their own consumption and for sale.

South Africa recently suffered its worst drought in recorded history, with devastating consequences for communities and wildlife in the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, which borders the famed Kruger National Park. Utah Village is one of the villages located close to Kruger National Park. It also falls in the area that has been under quarantine for the last 15 years due to the contagious foot and mouth disease.

On the factory floor of Champion Shoes in Thika, northeast of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, company owner James Mwaura is pointing to a pile of irregularly shaped offcuts from the process of making men’s and school shoes. “This is the most important part of the business. This is money for us. Before, we used to throw it away,” Mwaura says.

‘Before’ was almost two years ago, when his business began benefitting from a European Union-funded project that is accelerating Africa’s transition to a green economy.

AK Oils and Fats (U) Ltd produces sunflower and soya bean crude oil from sunflower and soya bean seeds respectively. It’s a subsidiary of Mukwano Industries
(U) Ltd, a private limited company located in the Upper Nile Water Management Zone.

On engaging with SWITCH Africa Green, water efficiency was an eye opener to the operations manager who realized the need to participate in the program. This resulted in the company conducting daily monitoring for leakages throughout the entire company.

Afri Banana Products (ABP) supports incubatees (Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and start-ups) and stakeholder farmers to commercialize and upscale innovations along the banana value chain. ABP also supports students to obtain hands on experience through internships and industrial attachment opportunities.