By Chukwuma Umeorah
A youth-led non-profit organisation, U-Recycle Initiative Africa is targeting installation of innovation hubs to tackle the issue of plastic waste and pollution in Nigeria and across Africa.
This was even as the organisation revealed that it intends to partner with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to deploy its solution on a wider scale and deepen more of its programmes to tackle plastic pollution.
The Co-founder, U-Recycle Initiative Africa, Oluwaseyi Moetoh, disclosed this in Lagos while briefing newsmen about its activities and its plans for the year at the weekend.
Moetoh noted that the organisation is targeting installing innovation hubs in the near future while adding it has empowered 350 young women in its capacity building programmes and has had representations of students from over 100 universities in Nigeria.
She added that the organisation is looking at ways to expand its PlasticWize Fellowship to empower more young women across universities in Nigeria and Africa.
Moetoh said, “At U-recycle Initiative we believe that plastic pollution is not just a challenge but an opportunity to bring about innovative solutions that tackle pollution at its root whilst promoting youth development and empowering young women. Through the power of technology, we strongly believe that plastic pollution can be tackled.
We intend to bridge the gap by creating access to education and awareness of the environment. We intend to partner with MDAs, government to redeploy our solution on a wider scale and deepen more of our programmes about tackling plastic pollution across the continent”.
The Co-Founder revealed that the organisation just recently had its plastic prize graduation ceremony where it selected 30 young women leading change across Nigeria towards tackling plastic pollution.
According to her, “This ceremony is commendable and important because for a very long time, young women and their voices have been undermined in this particular space. Hence, through our fellowship programme, we are trying to tell Nigeria and the world that young women are full of great potential and if given the right platform, resources and tools, they can bring about meaningful change”.
After demonstrating significant potential, 30 young, female undergraduates were selected from six universities across Nigeria as the inaugural PlasticWize Fellows, namely: University of Lagos (UNILAG); Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo; University of Ilorin; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife (OAU); the University of Benin (UNIBEN); and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).
These 30 undergraduates will spearhead the goal of the PlasticWize Fellowship in their respective schools through 4 sub-projects: an innovation workshop, a 21-day #IamPlasticWize challenge, an installation of a monument, and a university policy adoption to reduce the generation of single-use plastics in their respective universities.