By James Prince
Creating awareness about waste reuse and recycling with a verifiable record of over three million people reached, Fela Akinse has changed the narratives around waste reuse in Nigeria and has also reaped the fruits of his labour.
According to guardian newspaper, Fela started Salubata Technology in 2018, now an international firm but was formerly a Lagos-based business, providing environment-friendly solutions for fashion to corporate individual etc
He earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental toxicology in 2014 and, two years later, a master’s degree in environmental toxicology and pollution management from the university. It was during his master’s thesis project that he experimented on designing fashion shoes from plastic wastes
When recycling entrepreneur Fela Akinse was working as a business analyst, he noticed e-waste was becoming increasingly difficult to manage and recycle, and pollution from e-waste was on the rise.
He explored the opportunities in the Nigerian recycling industry. Understanding that Lagos state alone in Nigeria produced up to 10,000 metric tonnes of waste every day and had a population of over 16 million people
With a vision to harness the waste management industry to its full potential, Fela Akinse, quit his job as a business analyst and environmental scientist to pursue a career in waste management. He founded a company named Salubata, which focused on recycling plastic wastes collected from garbage cans and dump sites in Nigeria, to manufacture designer shoes
Online sources shows, These shoes are used for footwears and fashion and are getting increasingly popular. With over 15,000 shoes made, over 500 jobs created, and over $250,000 in yearly revenue, his small business hasn’t just turned into a great income stream for him, but has changed the course of his life.
Fela has managed to build the venture over the years despite the negative stigma that comes with working with trash, safety concerns, and lack of capital.
His small business success has also gotten international recognitions with him winning several awards like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT), British Council Entrepreneurship Award and several others.
And was acknowledge by Nigerian president Muhammad buhari for not just putting Africa on the map but his country of birth. after he won the common wealth award in Kigali.
Driven by his passion for the environment, Fela Akinse created an entrepreneurial course on Udemy with the aim to educate and drive awareness on the importance of recycling waste to prevent natural disasters and improve the environment.
Presently, with his course he has trained unemployed youths on the business of converting waste to fashion by so doing solved the problem of ecosystems pollution and reduces the pressure on waste disposal systems.
In conclusion, with the alarming quantity of plastics already embedded into our ecosystems – coupled with the projected near-tripling of plastics usage over the next 40 years – means more problem solver’s as Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola and Fela Akinse are urgently needed in Nigeria.