Q&A: The state of Africa’s circular transition

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As Africa advances its circular economy ambitions, Davinah Milenge Uwella of the Africa Circular Economy Facility (ACEF) says the continent’s transition is gaining real momentum, with opportunities across five priority sectors. She notes, however, that fully realising this potential will require addressing financing, standards and capacity constraints.

• Ms Uwella is the Chief Programme Coordinator within the African Development Bank’s Climate Change and Green Growth Department and Task Manager of ACEF, the Bank’s dedicated multi-donor trust fund promoting the circular economy. The facility operates as a catalytic instrument to create the conditions for Africa’s transition to a circular economy.

• “The question is no longer whether circular solutions are viable in Africa. The real question is how quickly the enabling conditions can be strengthened to capture the opportunity at scale,” she says.

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Africa’s circular transition is often described as “gaining momentum.” From your vantage point, where is there measurable, demonstrable progress, and where do you think progress may be overstated? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella: The momentum is real, but it’s important to be specific about where it sits.

At the policy level, the progress is concrete and measurable. In July 2025, the African Union (AU) adopted its Continental Circular Economy Action Plan, Africa’s own continental compass for this transition, fully aligned with Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA, and the AU’s Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy. What distinguishes Africa’s approach is that it was designed from the outset to integrate circularity with industrialisation, job creation, and climate resilience, reflecting the continent’s specific development trajectory.

That political signal has translated into real institutional momentum: The African Circular Economy Alliance, whose secretariat is hosted by the African Development Bank, now counts 23 member countries. The Alliance, founded in 2016, saw 40% growth in membership last year. Through the Africa Circular Economy Facility (ACEF)-funded National Circular Economy Roadmaps programme, countries like Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Ethiopia have moved from ambition to validated strategies with clear investment pathways. When we opened the second call for expression of interest, 32 countries came forward with interest to develop or implement national circular economy roadmaps. That kind of demand reflects genuine political commitment at the highest level.

And the evidence isn't confined to political leadership. At the enterprise level, circular business models are taking hold across diverse sectors including, packaging, food systems, construction, and electronics. Through the AfriCircular Innovators Programme, we worked with MSMEs in Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Rwanda to improve their circular economy businesses in sectors ranging from packaging, plastics to agro-processing, textiles, construction, electronics and beyond. Three quarters expanded their workforce and half increased their revenue. These aren't projections or promises; these are small businesses, which are often considered risky, generating income from circular models, right now, on the ground. To give a few examples: Rebanatex in Rwanda converts banana trunk waste into textiles, BiomassIvoire in Côte d’Ivoire has scaled organic fertiliser from 1,000 to 5,000 tons monthly, and Eco-Solve in Ghana produces biodegradable alternatives to plastic from cassava starch. These are young entrepreneurs building businesses that create jobs from waste, exactly the model that needs to scale. 

However, I would be cautious to point out the gap between policy adoption and systemic implementation. Having a roadmap is essential, but translating it into results requires having incentives, enforceable standards, and public procurement reforms that create an enabling environment for the circular transition. We also need to be honest about the financing landscape. The circular economy opportunity in Africa is valued at around US$546 billion with the potential to create 11 million jobs, but capital flows into circular solutions remains a fraction of what is required. Concessional funding is key to unblocking the circular potential; Financing mechanisms such as the African Development Bank’s ACEF, are critical for this transformation and must be scaled up to bridge the gap between ambition and delivery by de-risking early-stage interventions and creating conditions for larger capital flows.

Where do you see the biggest circular economy opportunities on the continent over the next five years, and what systemic barriers must be addressed to unlock them? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella: Circular economy opportunities follow where Africa’s economy is growing fastest, where material losses are highest, and where young people can be absorbed into productive work. In this case, Africa’s population, which is set to double to 2.5 billion by 2050, with 70% of the continent’s population under 30 years old, becomes a resource. Circular economy uniquely addresses climate resilience, industrial competitiveness, and the jobs challenge at that scale. As I outlined earlier, it is a USD 546 billion investment opportunity, generating 11 million jobs by 2030.

The African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), identified five priority sectors key for Africa’s circular economy transition, the “Five Big Bets”, namely: food systems, packaging, the built environment, electronics, and fashion and textiles.

Food systems employ close to 60% of Africa’s labour force. Yet post-harvest losses alone cost billions annually, for example in Chad, over 200,000 tons of cereals are lost per year affecting 3.7 million people. Circular approaches reduce these losses through solutions that also generate new jobs such as composting, biogas, nutrient recovery. The potential of Africa’s food market is estimated at a trillion dollars by 2030. The question is whether the next generation of agri-entrepreneurs captures that value or watches it waste.

In the construction sector; Africa has yet to build about 80% of the infrastructure needed by 2050. In Ethiopia, for example, where two million new homes are needed by 2030, circular design could reduce material costs by 30% while creating entirely new industries in affordable housing, green building materials, and waste-to-construction supply chains. These are labour-intensive sectors with short pathways to employment for young workers.

Fashion and textiles is a $31 billion market that already employs mostly women and young people. For instance, in Ghana, textiles and garments are a core subsector of a roughly 4 billion USD manufacturing base that grew at about 8% annually over the past five years, signalling both current scale and ongoing dynamism. The opportunity is to leapfrog conventional production through green manufacturing and upcycling of second-hand clothing into added-value garments and other products for growing global markets in sustainable fashion. The African Development Bank's Fashionomics Africa is building this pipeline: its pan-African incubation and acceleration programme trains textile and apparel MSMEs in business development, branding, digital marketing and circular economy practices. A dedicated sustainability competition has surfaced ventures like Nigeria's Pneedles, producing accessories from plastic waste, and Pine Kazi, a women-led house turning fruit-based materials into footwear. With an access-to-finance component launching this year, Fashionomics Africa is connecting skills, markets and capital for Africa's circular fashion entrepreneurs.

On barriers: three stand out. First, financing. Circular projects sit outside or in between traditional sector categories, making them harder to access funding from conventional channels yet the market opportunity is real, estimated at $8 billion annually in Africa. Second, standards: without harmonised norms for secondary material markets, regional trade in recycled products is constrained by lack of transparency. The new continental standard for Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate(rPET) by the African Organisation for Standardisation and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a free‑trade agreement and institutional framework that brings together the 55 member states of the African Union into a single continental market for goods and services, for example, are a step forward. Third, capacity constraint compounded by limited circular economy knowledge, standards, policies and regulatory frameworks. Whereas talent pipeline does exist, the enabling infrastructure and policy do not yet match it to promote growth in the sector. These are some of the systemic conditions that ACEF is designed to address.

How is ACEF supporting Africa’s circular transition? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella: ACEF is the African Development Bank’s dedicated multi-donor trust fund to promote circular economy; it is the only financing mechanism on the continent with this specific mandate. Established in 2022 and supported by the Government of Finland, the Nordic Development Fund, and the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Facility operates as a catalytic instrument, to create conditions to enable the circular economy transition.

At ACEF, we work across three interconnected pillars: policy enablers, private sector support and continental advocacy. What binds these three pillars is ACEF's positioning within the African Development Bank aligned with the Bank's Ten-Year Strategy 2024–2033. Our projects connect to both continental policy architecture and the Bank's broader investment pipeline. We support governments in developing the policy frameworks through a process involving a broad base of national stakeholders., ACEF’s National Circular Economy Roadmaps programme has delivered circular economy strategies and actions plans in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Ethiopia, identifying priority sectors and sequencing the policy steps to advance them. These roadmaps are tools that help governments direct investment and coordinate action across ministries. On circular business development, the AfriCircular Innovators Programme provides circular MSMEs with grants, capacity building, and market access.

Strategically, a crucial pillar is advocacy and knowledge generation. ACEF supports the African Circular Economy Alliance, a government-led coalition of 23 countries at the highest levels: United Nations Environment Assembly, the World Circular Economy Forum, United Nations Conference of Parties (COP), the Africa Climate Summit, etc. ACEA drives continental standards harmonization, including the adoption of a rPET standard by ARSO, the African Organisation for Standardisation, and played a central role in launching the AU Continental Circular Economy Action Plan. This pillar ensures that Africa shapes the global circular economy agenda rather than implementing frameworks designed elsewhere, and that the evidence generated through our country-level work feeds directly into continental and global policy.

What types of funding instruments does ACEF use to support circular economy initiatives across Africa? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella: ACEF funding is designed as upstream support for investment—creating the conditions that make circular projects feasible. The gap in Africa's circular transition is not primarily a shortage of capital; it is the absence of the enabling architecture that allows capital to flow.

We deploy three categories of instruments, each targeting a different bottleneck.

The first is strategic grant funding for policy and regulatory reform, the work no commercial investor will finance but without which no commercial investment happens. When a country lacks a circular economy framework, secondary material standards, or the institutional capacity to regulate producer responsibility, investment stays on the sidelines. The National Circular Economy Roadmaps produce the sectoral diagnostics and sequenced action plans that governments and investors require before committing capital. In Ethiopia, linking the roadmap directly to the country's NDC implementation plan gave the circular economy a financing pathway through climate finance it would not otherwise have had.

The second is enterprise-level support that bridges the gap between innovation and investability. The AfriCircular Programme combines mini-grants, business coaching, and market access. The design principle is to generate investment readiness instead of permanent sponsorship. An enterprise like BiomassIvoire in Côte d'Ivoire, which scaled organic fertiliser production from 1,000 to 5,000 tons monthly, didn’t need indefinite donor support, it needed targeted support to demonstrate a viable model to the market.

The third is co-financing of projects and cross-departmental integration within the Bank. We have several projects in the pipeline that demonstrate that a circular economy can be mainstreamed across the Bank's portfolio: infrastructure and urban development, agriculture industrial, and private sector portfolios, to give examples.

The underlying logic is the multiplier effect. ACEF is approximately USD 10 million operating in a space valued at more than USD 546 billion. Our role is to build the on-ramps that allow much larger players - within and beyond the Bank - to invest with confidence. Every euro we deploy should unlock a multiple in public and private capital flowing into circular value chains.

ACEF supports the development of national circular economy strategies across Africa, yet implementation gaps have historically undermined environmental policies, as we have seen with single-use plastic bans. What mechanisms does ACEF use to ensure strategies move beyond policy design into enforceable, operational systems?

Davinah Milenge Uwella:  The Africa Circular Economy Facility supports the work of the African Circular Economy Alliance, which has the mandate to advocate for Africa’s position on circular economy related policies including on plastics. Our work on National Circular Economy Roadmaps enables countries to put forward their circular economy priorities. The roadmaps are co-developed with national teams through structured engagement with sector agencies, municipalities, the private sector, and civil society. When a country’s leadership commits to a circular economy action plan, that creates institutional accountability that outlasts any single project.

The second mechanism is embedding circular economy within existing institutional frameworks rather than creating parallel structures. To illustrate this, Chad's roadmap which anchors circular measures to the country's policy spine: Vision 2030, the NDC, and national adaptation planning. Circularity is treated as a way to deliver state priorities, not a new agenda. The justification is anchored in macro-signals such as 3.7 million people affected by food insecurity, 200,000+ tonnes of cereals lost post-harvest annually, 85–95% of waste dumped or burned at an estimated drag of 1.2% of GDP. From there, the roadmap translates embedment into an implementable state agenda.

The third mechanism is financial sustainability by design. The ACEF supported operationalization of Rwanda’s Extended Producer Responsibility scheme (EPR) for the e-waste sector. Extended producer responsibility shifts the cost of waste management from governments and taxpayers to producers. If it’s designed correctly, it creates a self-sustaining financing mechanism that does not depend on continued donor support. That is fundamentally different from schemes that rely on enforcement capacity that is often lacking in many localities.

Fourth, we build demand for a circular economy through regional standards and market infrastructure. Without regional harmonised standards for secondary materials, larger cross border markets cannot be accessed. ACEA’s work with the African Organisation for Standardisation on standards for recycled PET creates market conditions that make policy enforcement economically attractive. 

Staying with policy frameworks, what are the most common gaps you encounter across African countries? And how does ACEF balance continental alignment with country-specific realities? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella:  The gaps tend to be structural rather than technical.

The most common is fragmentation. Circular economy touches multiple sectors (agriculture, industry, waste, trade, construction, energy) but responsibility is typically spread across several ministries with limited coordination. A national roadmap process brings these actors to agree on priorities, sequencing, and responsibilities. That institutional coordination is often more valuable to drive the desired shift to circular innovations.

The second gap is data. Many countries lack historical data on material flows, waste generation, and resource productivity. Without this evidence, it is very difficult to set meaningful targets or attract investment. The national roadmap process systematically builds this evidence base. In Chad, for example, studies quantified that 85–95% of waste is dumped or openly burned at a cost of 1.2% of GDP. That data point reframes the circular economy from an environmental lens to an economic one.

The third gap is the link between policy and finance. Connecting circular economy to finance mechanisms, national strategies including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or Sustainable Development Goals, provides a financing pathway that standalone sector policies typically lack.

On the balance between continental coherence and national specificity - ACEF provides grant financing for technical assistance to African countries for roadmaps, enterprise support, and sector interventions tailored to each country’s economic structure, resource base, and institutional capacity. At the regional level, the African Circular Economy Alliance provides the continental coordination platform for harmonised standards, shared policy frameworks, including arrangements of implementing the AU Continental Circular Economy Action Plan.

From ACEF’s perspective, what would success for Africa’s circular economy look like by 2030? 

Davinah Milenge Uwella:  Success by 2030 would mean that the circular economy is no longer treated as a niche agenda but as an integral part of how African countries pursue industrial competitiveness, climate resilience, and job creation.

Concretely, this would mean several things.

First, a critical mass of African countries with operational circular economy frameworks linked to their NDCs, industrial policies, and investment plans that actively shape how governments allocate budgets, influence policy, and direct development partner coordination.

Second, a functioning market infrastructure for secondary materials across the continent. This means harmonised standards, trade facilitation, and regional value chains where recycled plastics, recovered construction materials, and processed organic waste move across borders with the same ease as primary commodities. The AfCFTA should be a vehicle for this.

Third, finance must flow at scale to circular MSMEs. Africa's MSME sector is where the circular transition succeeds or stalls. Programmes like AfriCircular have shown the model works. But enterprise support alone is not enough. Circular economy should become a design principle in how development finance institutions structure investments across infrastructure, agriculture, industry, and urban development. This aligns directly with the AfDB President's Four Cardinal Points: expanding capital access for circular enterprises, harnessing Africa's demographic transformation through green jobs, building climate-resilient infrastructure through circular design. The Bank's New African Financial Architecture (NAFA) reinforces this: scaling private sector investment in precisely the sectors where circularity delivers the highest returns. The question is no longer whether circular MSMEs are viable. It is whether financing systems can be structured fast enough to match the pipeline emerging on the ground.

ACEF is a catalytic instrument. If by 2030, the conditions we are putting in place today (the policy frameworks, the enterprise capacity, the institutional architecture) have taken root, then ACEF will have served its purpose. The goal of the Facility was never to be a ceaseless provider of technical assistance but rather to create conditions for the circular economy to be a viable investment.

Any final thoughts?

Davinah Milenge Uwella:  Africa’s circular economy is not a response to a global trend. It is a strategic economic proposition. If there is one point I would want the readers to take away, it would be that circular economy in Africa is not a fad, the practices that underpin circular economy (repair, reuse, resource efficiency, waste valorisation) are deeply rooted in how African communities and economies have always operated.

What is new is the institutional architecture to scale these practices and connect them to investment. The African Union’s Continental Circular Economy Action Plan, the country-driven ACEA coalition, and ACEF’s financing instruments represent a deliberate effort to move from informal practices to a structured continental economic strategy. Those who engage now, through financing, technical cooperation, or knowledge exchange, are positioning themselves in a market shaped by what Africa has to offer.

To investors, executives, and decision-makers and all the readership of Continent Rising - the message is, the circular economy in Africa is viable. The policy frameworks are being built; the enterprise pipeline is growing; standards are being harmonized - the question is no longer whether circular transition is possible but rather how fast the enabling conditions can be strengthened to capture the opportunity at the scale it deserves.