Premier Waste Ghana, a participant of Innohub and SNV’s GrEEn Acceleration Program has hosted Representatives from SNV Ghana and Ambassadors from the European Union (EU) member countries for a working visit.
Premier Waste Ghana is a waste management startup that provides low-cost plastic waste recovery, collections and recycling infrastructure with an effective waste pickers network in managing plastic waste in Ghana. The visit was to enable the delegation to know how the startup was solving the plastic waste menace in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, and creating employment for women and the youth in the country and to know how the SNV Ghana GrEEn Acceleration project was helping the company in greening its operations and the plans in solving the high rate of unemployment in the region.
The delegation included the EU Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Irchad Razaaly, Deputy Ambassador of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ghana, H.E. Kyrre Holm, representatives from the UN Capital Development Fund, and a team from SNV Ghana.
Addressing the delegation, Mr Edmund Arthur Brown, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Premier Waste Ghana took the team through the process of operation and highlighted how green it was.
He hinted that the activities of Premiere Waste Ghana were providing green employment to over one-hundred and seventy-five (175) individuals directly and indirectly.
He noted that green enterprise was a fertile work for women employable and that the company was providing women employable opportunities and support.
Mr Brown said, the startup, like other Green entrepreneurs, had received enormous support from the GrEEn Incubation Programme and business advisory support from Innohub and the SNV Ghana towards building eco-inclusive SMEs and thanked them for the support.
He announced that Premiere Waste Ghana contributes to caring for the environment by providing low-cost plastic waste recovery, collections, and recycling infrastructure to produce PET flakes.
“The value chain in the plastic sector has had enormous support in Ghana. This support helps Premier Waste Ghana to do more by educating schools, communities, churches, and marketplaces about economic and environmental impacts on plastic waste”, he enumerated.
The delegation was amazed about the work of the startup and also promised to visit again.
They deemed the visit as thrilling and encouraging as it will strengthen the workforce to know how little action goes a long way to caring for the environment and giving second life to plastic waste.
H.E. Irchad Razaaly opined that almost everyone thrives on support and good ideas need our support while businesses, as well as the environment, need support.
“As Wendell Berry said, ‘the Earth is what we all have in common.’ It is in this commonest that we all need to care for the environment”, he pointed out.
The Acceleration program implemented by Innohub under the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation’s Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) Project, provided Premier Waste Ghana with bespoke business development support, mentorship, market access and linkages, that would help them develop a roadmap to achieving sustainable scale, and create new decent jobs, as well as improved access to funding for their operations.
Funded by the European Union, the Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn Project) contributes to addressing the root causes of irregular migration by supporting sustainable and climate resilient local economies, green jobs and development in regions of departure, transit and return.
