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- Development partners start to see the value of capital investments
Development partners start to see the value of capital investments
Dear subscriber,
Many of Africa's circular economy ambitions are already well documented. Yet ambitions alone do not build recycling facilities, collection networks or manufacturing capacity. As the circular economy matures, attention is turning to a more practical question: how capital reaches the businesses expected to deliver these ambitions. The answer may determine how quickly circular economy activity moves from ambition to implementation.
Mercy Maina - Editor
 | Much of the support for Africa's circular economy in years past focused on capacity-building. Recent initiatives, however, suggest development partners are placing greater emphasis on helping circular businesses attract investment and scale. The latest example is a new African Development Bank programme targeting growth-stage enterprises. |
While many circular economy SMEs can prove their concept, securing the funding needed to scale is often the greater challenge.
The focus on investment readiness aligns with broader African circular economy ambitions, which place emphasis on mobilising finance and helping circular enterprises move from pilot stage to commercial scale.
Our take: Development partners appear to be betting that Africa already has the circular economy businesses it needs… Read more (2 min)
 | Despite growing awareness of plastic pollution, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen says investment continues to flow disproportionately towards downstream solutions, while prevention, reuse and redesign remain underfunded. She calls for stronger policies and blended finance to unlock capital for upstream circular solutions. |
The remarks resonate in Africa, where significant gaps in financing and infrastructure continue to constrain efforts to combat plastic pollution, even as the continent's plastic waste burden is projected to more than double by 2060.
Ms Andersen made the remarks during a side event on mobilising capital for the transition to a circular economy, held alongside the Plastic Reboot programme in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on June 4.
Read the full opinion article here (2 min)
 | Circular economy businesses across Africa raised approximately $250 million in May. North Africa dominated by funding value, attracting $240 million, while Southern Africa was the most active region by deal volume, accounting for three of the nine recorded transactions. North Africa and Central Africa followed with two deals each. |
Grant funding dominated by deal volume, representing 67% of all transactions tracked during the month. By value, however, private capital accounted for 80% of funding raised, followed by loans at 16%, while grants and blended finance contributed just 2.5% and 1.6% respectively.
Despite raising a quarter of a billion dollars, May's funding total remained well below the average monthly funding of approximately $950 million recorded last year, a figure boosted by several large sovereign and municipal transactions.
Our take:There is growing interest in solutions that create value from waste, while capital remains concentrated in a small number of large-scale infrastructure projects…Read more (2 min)
Source: Janine Osborne
Coastal Park Materials Recovery Facility in Muizenberg, Cape Town
Events
✍️ Learn how to turn farm waste into energy at Bio360 Africa, S. Africa (June 17)
📦 Sign up for KEPRO Sustainable Packaging Exchange in Kenya (June 23)
🪪 Network at WasteCon 2026 in South Africa (October 20)
Jobs
🧑🚒 Work as a Wastewater Treatment Plant Worker at Amentum (Mauritius)
🧕 Serve as a Senior Waste Management Consultant at AESG (Egypt)
🧑⚕️ Design waste water treatment plants at Va Tech Wabag (Egypt)
🧑💼 Be the next Project Manager at South Group Recycling (South Africa)
👷 Apply for the Infrastructure Project Manager role at PiH (Sierra Leone)
Various
🏭 UK's Polar Hydro plans up to $86m waste-to-energy project in Egypt
🚶 The impossible economic choices facing Ghana’s e‑waste workers
♻️ Germans supporting businesses in Kenya to adopt circularity
🔃 The refill and reuse systems handbook
🐆 How hyenas are secretly saving an Ethiopian city 5,000 tonnes of urban waste
Seen on LinkedIn
Jennifer Wang, founder of Full Cycle Resource Consulting, says, “ Circularity is not achieved by implementing solutions everywhere at once. It requires understanding where materials flow, where value is created, where bottlenecks exist, and where resources should be allocated.”