adsA Nigerian entrepreneur who turns invasive water weeds into furniture has called on the country’s top professional women engineers to put their expertise behind a growing grassroots waste economy — or risk letting a generational opportunity slip away.
Achenyo Idachaba-Obaro, founder of Mitimeth, delivered that challenge in Lagos at the seventh edition of the Olutumbi Maduka Annual Lecture (OMAL), urging the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) to mentor coastal communities and young innovators on building commercially viable businesses from waste.
“Mentorship and engineering support can help transform grassroots ideas into commercially viable solutions capable of driving economic growth and environmental restoration,” she told the gathering, assembled to mark the 85th birthday of APWEN’s founder, Olutumbi Maduka.
Idachaba-Obaro’s pitch was grounded in her own company’s model. Mitimeth harvests water hyacinth — an invasive aquatic plant choking Nigeria’s waterways — and converts it into furniture, lighting, home décor and speciality paper, drawing local community members into the production chain.
She widened the lens to the continent, pointing to entrepreneurs in Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria already turning plastic waste, agricultural residue, textile scraps and invasive species into exportable products and manufacturing jobs.adsads
