Rising Tide commits N1.4bn to waste collection - Punch Newspapers

Rising Tide Africa, a women-led pan-African angel investment network, has committed about N1.4bn ($1m) to Ororo Waste Management Limited to expand its used cooking oil collection network across Nigeria. According to a statement, the investment will support the development of additional collection infrastructure and working capital as Ororo Waste expands from its existing hubs in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt to more than 40 hubs nationwide within five years. Ororo Waste received the first tranche of the corporate note on September 16, while Rising Tide Africa may release further tranches until December 16, 2026. The investment follows a training programme organised by Ororo Waste in July in partnership with the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Shell Foundation and the Waste Pickers Association of Nigeria, where about 250 market women, waste pickers and youths received training on the collection, handling and storage of used cooking oil. The two-day training, held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Alausa, Ikeja, also covered quality assurance, traceability and the use of used cooking oil as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel and biodiesel. Ororo Waste’s Director of Operations, Olaitan Dawodu, said the programme would create income opportunities for participants while improving environmental protection. “Every participant within the supply chain, including market women, waste pickers and youths, will earn income for their respective roles. This creates an inclusive circular economy that generates employment while protecting human health and the environment,” Dawodu said. Nigeria generates an estimated 840,000 metric tonnes of used cooking oil annually, but more than 95 per cent of the volume currently goes uncaptured, according to Ororo Waste.See more Punch stories on Google.Add Punch on Google The company said discarded cooking oil could block drains and waterways and worsen flooding, while unsafe reuse in food preparation could expose consumers to harmful substances. Rising Tide Africa co-founder, Yemi Keri, said the investment would help create a formal collection system that pays women and other collectors for the value they contribute to the supply chain. “Nigeria generates hundreds of thousands of tonnes of used cooking oil each year. Market women and waste pickers already do most of the collecting. Few have ever been paid fairly for that work, and even fewer at scale. Our capital helps fund the infrastructure that pays those women the same day, for a commodity that some of the world’s largest offtakers are already contracted to buy,” Keri said. She added, “This is gender-lens investing in practice: capital that follows the value women are already creating and helping them grow it.” AIICO: Learning, conference centre represents workplace infrastructure expansion Lagos exhibition creates market for artists Grid Crux signs 10-year deal to power Dolphin Telecoms Ororo Waste’s Co-CEO, Ayo Banjo, said the company’s certification and traceability systems had helped it maintain quality standards and build relationships with international buyers. “Refiners in Europe don’t buy good intentions – they buy documented, ISCC-certified tonnes. Every litre we export is GPS-tracked and QR-coded from a collector’s drum to the export container, which is why we have built very committed relationships based on trust and reliability with the offtaker community, and why we’ve had zero quality rejections across thousands of tonnes exported,” Banjo said. He said the new funding would support the less visible infrastructure required to expand the collection network. “Rising Tide’s capital helps fund the unglamorous but necessary part — drums, trucks, hub storage, and the working-capital float that lets us pay a market woman in Alausa the same day she sells to us. We are very honoured to be in a position to deploy infrastructure that will offer dignified incomes to several hundred thousand women, at a minimum,” Banjo said. Under the partnership, Ororo Waste plans to increase its formally paid collector network from about 5,000 currently to more than 200,000 by 2031. The company also targets certified used cooking oil collection of more than 150,000 metric tonnes annually by 2031, representing about 18 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated annual supply. Ororo said women would account for at least half of newly onboarded market-level collection points, with the proportion potentially reaching 75 per cent. The company plans to complete a baseline income survey of the first formally onboarded collector group from the July training by the end of 2026 and report annual income and employment outcomes for participating women, waste pickers and youths. Ororo Waste said it would also track the gender composition of its workforce and leadership as part of its environmental, social and governance reporting. The company holds International Sustainability and Carbon Certification and said it had exported thousands of metric tonnes of used cooking oil without quality rejections. Its collection platform uses GPS and QR codes to track transactions from collectors to export containers, while collectors receive payment through mobile money on the same day. The company said its ESG framework includes independent directors, external audit and regular impact reporting, while its ESG policy aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, NESREA guidelines and the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018. Arinze Nwafor Arinze Nwafor is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with five years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s economy, industry, data, metro, and judiciary. He focuses on highlighting growth, policy, and market challenges shaping Africa’s largest economy. Arinze’s reporting reflects practical newsroom experience, editorial judgment, and a strong commitment to accurate, informative, and audience-focused journalism.

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