In Accra, 73% of the population use shared sewage facilities from which faecal sludge is drained mechanically by trucks, with 72% of this ending up untreated in the environment. The only remaining landfill site in Accra is estimated to have reached capacity. Of the 2,385 tonnes of municipal waste produced daily, organic matter comprises 65%. On the other hand, Africa has some of the most degraded soils in the world, with land being stripped of micro and macro nutrients. Waste organic matter can return vital nutrients to the soil and create energy and irrigation water from by-products of the process.

Safisana designs, constructs and operates waste-to-energy anaerobic digestion plants. The company combines organic waste from food markets and abattoirs with faecal matter from urban slums to produce biogas, soil conditioner and irrigation water. They have their own nutrient rich organic fertiliser brand, ‘Asaase Gyefo’ (‘Soil Saviour’), which they both sell and use to produce seedlings. A significant portion of revenue comes from selling electricity generated from captured methane to the national power company. Collaboration has always been at the heart of their model, right from their founding. The local municipal assembly contributed land for their plant. They work closely with NGOs improving public toilets, and they have a deep relationship with local communities. Improving sanitation requires them to encourage behaviour change, which entails educating customers on proper segregation and disposal of organic waste. In this regard, every employee of Safisana is an ambassador for the change they are contributing to. They have benefitted from blended financing - from grants to establish the plant, to a diverse revenue mix to cover operating costs. This reflects the deep value they provide, which goes beyond sanitation services to customers, or soil enhancement to farmer buyers and extends to cleaning up the environment and communities, while alleviating the burden on an overencumbered waste management system

This case study has been created as part of Footprints Africa's work to build the first ever comprehensive mapping of circular economy initiatives in Africa. This will lay the foundation open-source database that can inspire local initiatives, as well as inform the global dialogue, which is largely focused on the European and American contexts. We are doing this in collaboration with the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN). ACEN's vision is to build a restorative African economy that generates well-being and prosperity inclusive of all its people through new forms of economic production and consumption which maintain and regenerate its environmental resources.

The objective is to build an open-source database featuring 500 cases by the end of 2021, with strong regional representation. These will feature in the Knowledge Hub and are also being mapped by GRID-Arendal.