Table of Contents
Joseph Siaw Agyepong, founder and executive chairman of Ghana’s Jospong Group of Companies, led a delegation that met Cameroonian officials as the government looks for partners to improve collection and build recycling and treatment capacity.
The visit, scheduled from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20, included talks at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on possible investments in municipal sanitation and what officials call a “waste to wealth” approach. People familiar with the discussions said the delegation’s message was straightforward: waste management can be organized as a value chain, not handled as an emergency service that lurches from crisis to crisis.
Jospong presented an integrated model covering solid waste, liquid waste and medical waste, combining collection, sorting, processing and recycling. The delegation was accompanied by Yvonne Flore Belema, head of the ACAHIJEC association, which works with the housing ministry under an agreement signed during World Habitat Days in Bafoussam. Participants said the meetings also touched on training programs and how to structure partnerships with municipalities that often struggle to fund basic services.
Cameroon’s interest is driven by scale. Urban growth has pushed annual waste generation close to 6 million tons, and formal collection still captures only part of what is produced in the two largest cities, Yaounde and Douala. Structured treatment and recovery remain limited, even as authorities seek private capital, equipment and operational know how that can expand quickly and keep streets, waterways and drains clear during the rainy season.
Jospong is best known through Zoomlion, its sanitation business in Ghana. The group says its approach relies on recycling and treatment facilities designed to cut pollution, protect ecosystems and improve living conditions while creating jobs and economic value. Executives told officials the same chain could be adapted in Cameroon with local hiring, skills transfer and a phased buildout that starts with collection and sorting before scaling into processing and recovery.
Contacts between the sides did not start in Yaounde. Officials say earlier discussions took place on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Japan in August, including exchanges with Cameroon’s Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development. A senior technical adviser from the housing ministry also engaged Belema during meetings linked to the African Clean Cities Platform, and those exchanges led to a follow up session in September.
The timing reflects a policy shift in Cameroon after national consultations on urban waste management. Authorities have leaned harder into circular economy ideas, hoping to cut pollution while generating income from what is discarded, from compost and recycled plastics to fuel and other byproducts.
No deal has been announced, and officials cautioned that discussions remain exploratory as the government reviews proposals and potential financing options.
