African circularity gets $115 million in Q1 investments

From the newsletter

Circular economy initiatives in Africa attracted $115 million in investments in the first quarter of 2026, with activity concentrated in West and East Africa, each accounting for three of the seven deals. The transactions, spanning Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, comprised a mix of blended finance, private equity, grants and equity investments.

• Kenya led in total deal value, securing $56.8 million across three transactions, followed closely by Nigeria with $55 million across two deals.

• Development finance institutions and blended capital structures dominated the quarter, with limited standalone private investment, reinforcing the sector’s continued reliance on catalytic and concessional funding.

More details

• In East Africa, Kenya-based urban sanitation company Sanivation secured $3.8 million from the UK-based Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) to expand its waste-to-fuel operations, converting human waste and organic residues into solid fuel briquettes. Of the total, $3.3 million is structured as an equity investment, with an additional $500,000 provided as a technical assistance grant. The capital will finance the Naivasha Treatment Plant expansion (NTPx), scaling up a pilot waste-to-fuel project launched in 2018 in partnership with Nakuru County. 

• Still in Kenya, Sistema.bio secured $53 million in blended finance from BNP Paribas Asset Management, British International Investment and Shell Foundation to launch the FarmCarbon Fund. The facility will finance biodigesters for smallholder farmers in the country, converting organic waste into biogas, fertiliser and carbon credits, while reducing methane emissions and input costs.

• Meanwhile in West Africa, Nigeria-based Polysmart Packaging Group secured $5 million in private equity from an undisclosed investor to expand production capacity and strengthen its recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) processing platform. In a separate deal in the same market, the Lagos State government received a $50 million loan from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to develop waste management facilities in Lagos. The project aims to expand infrastructure, raise recycling rates to 45%, create over 5,000 jobs and produce 60,000 tonnes of organic compost annually, while reducing public health risks. 

• In neighbouring Ghana, waste management company JSO Waste secured $2.9 million in blended finance from a consortium including Insectum ApS and Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund to develop a facility that will convert 8,000 tonnes of organic waste annually into protein for animal feed and organic fertiliser. 

• At the continental level, Geminor received a $521,000 grant from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation to explore the conversion of non-recyclable plastic waste in Africa into solid recovered fuel (SRF) for use in the cement industry. The initiative targets industrial decarbonisation by substituting fossil fuels with waste-derived alternatives, while advancing circular solutions for hard-to-recycle plastics.

• The quarter reflects a dual-track market, with private capital targeting scalable recycling and bio-based solutions, while public and development finance continues to underpin large-scale waste infrastructure. 

Our take

• Despite continued investment, the sector remains heavily reliant on concessional capital. The limited presence of standalone private investment suggests that circular economy models in Africa have yet to reach the scale and risk profile required to attract broader commercial capital. 

• Six of the seven deals targeted waste-to-value models, particularly in energy, agriculture and recycling, signalling investor preference for revenue-generating circular applications.