Amitruck, a Nairobi-based digital logistics marketplace with a focus on Africa, remains undeterred in its mission to dominate the African digital logistics sector. Only two months after forming a strategic partnership with ecommerce startup Sky.Garden, the firm has shifted its focus to waste management, a strategic step toward environmental sustainability for the firm. Sanergy, a social venture that cleans up fast-growing cities by collecting and transforming harmful organic waste streams into high-quality, safe goods that help cities expand economically sustainably, is the most recent alliance.
Both East African innovators will join forces to exploit their end-to-end value chain network of operations and efficient logistics to collect, treat, and convert two streams of waste: sanitation waste generated in low-income informal settlements with inadequate sanitation services as well as kitchen and agricultural waste from restaurants, market places and agricultural pack houses. The partnership will take effect on June 5, 2021, World Environment Day.
“With more than 5,000 drivers, we are proud to be partnering with Sanergy and its community to enable a circular economy benefiting the Environment, Health, People and Greener cities. Thanks to its innovative digital marketplace, Amitruck accelerates the transition to more sustainable logistics, allowing existing fleets of vehicles to be used a lot more efficiently for Positive Impact,” said Mark Mwangi, Amitruck CEO.
How The Partnership Will Work And Why It Is Significant
Partnering with Amitruck, Sanergy removes more than 12,000 tons of waste every year, and upcycles it into end-products such as organic fertilizer, insect-based protein for animal feed and biomass briquettes used as clean fuel. This circular economy solution addresses multiple challenges: environmental pollution by sanitation waste that is improperly disposed of, low agricultural yields due to declining soil fertility and increasing GHG emissions from open dumping of waste.
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In addition, innovative logistics solutions for waste collection, using Amitruck’s digital marketplace of vehicles and drivers, more effectively managing fleets and the transport of goods, are accelerating the transition to more sustainable cities.
Through the partnership, therefore, the two partners will heavily be impacting the economy and the society. Sanergy has already created more than 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, whilst Amitruck has hired more than 5,000 drivers over two years thanks to innovative digital models.
“We are excited to be pioneering a sustainable waste management solution that benefits the people and economy, and restores our ecosystem. Our next big goal is to expand here in Nairobi, and then replicate our model across Kenya and Africa,” said Michael Lwoyelo, Sanergy Managing Director.
However, while there are impeccable successes in Nairobi, Kenya, Sanergy and Amitruck believe that scaling and replicating the closed loop circular economy approach in other cities in Kenya and beyond is key to strengthen fragile systems such as waste management, production of agriculture inputs and to build resilient cities where residents are healthy and prosperous. Both parners, therefore, noted that it is imperative to forge partnerships with government stakeholders and other sector players to scale and serve more citizens and businesses with professional services. In particular, they also noted that government plays a critical role in creating and improving the regulatory framework that sees these novel models thrive.
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The partnership is significant in some ways. Sanergy has built one of the largest Organics Recycling Factory in Sub-saharan Africa with a capacity to process 72,000 tons of waste every year. Having modeled successful operations in Nairobi, Sanergy is scaling and replicating their solution to serve 10 cities in Kenya and beyond over the next 5 years. And so, this would provide an immense opportunity for Amitruck which has more than 5000 drivers at its disposal. For its part, Amitruck has had an exciting 12 months with its revenues growing by over 300% despite the COVID-19 crisis.
The relationship is also a significant step forward for Amitruck in terms of ESG compliance, a criterion that has become more vital in earning high sustainability rankings.
partnership Amitruck Sanergy partnership Amitruck Sanergy
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer