A new multinational initiative plans to cut Africa’s mounting electronic waste problem down to size as well as facilitate access to renewable energy.
ESI Africa reports that the Circular Economy Powered Energy Centre (CEPREC), funded by the UK government’s Ayrton Fund, to the tune of £3.5 million, will operate in South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Namibia and Nigeria.
Thirty partner institutions from academia, industry and government will lend their expertise to the initiative to come up with new technologies involving second-life power electronics and batteries to improve energy efficiency.
‘CEPREC was set up to transform the way we think about waste, turning it into opportunity, empowering communities and driving economic transformation,’ says Muyiwa Oyinlola, the director of CEPREC and Professor of Innovation for Sustainable Development at De Montfort University.
De Montford University, based in the UK, is one of the participating universities, which include the University of Warwick, and Chatham House in the UK, Strathmore University (Kenya), the University of Lagos (Nigeria), the University of Namibia, the University of Sierra Leone, Kigali Collaborative Research Centre (Rwanda), Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa), the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and the University of Nigeria.
‘By leveraging circular economy principles, CEPREC will create sustainable energy solutions, build capacity, and shape the police landscape for a greener future,’ says Wlliam Murithi, a researcher at Strathmore University.
