Projects

The greatest challenges facing eco-enterprises are a lack of access to knowledge, networks, financing and high-quality business development services and poor enabling conditions, including a shortage of skilled people at the community level.

Currently, Ghana has a wide range of traditional agriculture production that makes a major contribution to food security and livelihoods in rural areas, including production of shea nuts, palm kernels, peanuts, seeds and cassava. These products are processed using thermal energy before being consumed or traded. Firewood is traditionally used for the vast majority of thermal agro-processing, and recent increases in the price of liquified petroleum gas have supported this preference.

Fuelled by the accelerated pace of digitalization and the rise of a global middle class, the market for electrical and electronic equipment is expanding rapidly, and with it the production of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). In Ghana, the vast majority of e-waste is managed under poor environmental, health and safety conditions. Open burning of cables and manual disassembly of lead-acid batteries are still widely used practices, causing significant environmental pollution and damage to human health. 

Volumes of e-waste and end-of-life vehicles (ELV) in Ghana are increasing by about 49 million tons per year due to a growing population, and in particular due to changing lifestyles, as well as to imports of e-waste and ELV. While there is a high level of reuse and refurbishment of used electrical and electronic equipment and used vehicles and their components, unsound treatment and disposal of e-waste and ELV cause enormous damage to the environment and human health. This project is aimed at supporting eco-entrepreneurship opportunities for the treatment of such waste.

In Ghana, 95% of the population depends on on-site, stand-alone treatment systems to meet their sanitation needs. The contents of such sanitation facilities, whether domestic, industrial or in the hospitality sector, are rich in methane gas, but are disposed of indiscriminately in the open air, with all the attendant public health implications. 

Ghana generates over 150,000 tons of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE, or e-waste) annually. This is in addition to end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment imported into the country.

The problem of the collection, management and disposal of waste continues to feature prominently in major towns and cities across African countries. This has led to contamination of water bodies and to the spread of waterborne diseases and other health hazards. In most African countries, waste generation is the result of a rapidly growing urban population, along with the changing patterns of production and consumption inherent to a more urban lifestyle and the consequent industrialization.