‘Only about 1% of the world’s recycled metals come from the African continent,’ says CEO of Romco Metals

A UK multinational non-ferrous metal recycler with an emerging market focus, Romco Metals presently recycles almost 3000 tonnes per month of non-ferrous scrap largely aluminium and copper, consigning it all over the world to car manufacturers.

This mechanizes one of Romco’s sites that have processed the identical of thirty-four Olympic size swimming pools full of scrap since its commencement.

Raymond Onovwigun, CEO of Romco Metals, proposes to set up a total of five more recycling plants across Africa over the next five years, totalling seven.

“Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in November, the London-based entrepreneur is eager to point out that the ‘biggest gap in sustainable infrastructure is the lack of a structured circular economy in Africa. While Africa represents a fifth of the world’s total population, its recycling industry is still in development. ‘But we have solutions,” Onovwigun said.

“That’s why we’re expanding our recycling activities throughout Africa in those areas where it’s needed most. In the process of doing so, we’re adding hundreds of industry jobs”, he says.

However, “By adopting such an active approach”, Onovwigun believes Africa can become a ‘recycling powerhouse’.

Raymond Onovwigan added: “Only about 1% of the world’s recycled metals come from the African continent.” Romco Metals is hoping to change that, as it has opened a new recycling plant in Ghana at the beginning of 2021, with ambitious plans for future expansions.

Romco oversees to improve its revenue by over 900% during the pandemic. Currently, the recycler is now working on setting up a trade hub in Cyprus and has floated multiple eco-initiatives, for example, cleaning African rivers of plastic scrap and delivering renewable energy to local communities.  Simultaneously, Africa is projected to be home to almost 2 billion people by 2040.

“If we want to realise our climate goals, we have to significantly increase our recycling capacity. That’s the most effective way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. It makes perfect sense to capitalise on the abundant presence of critical metals lying in wait in dusty drawers, garages and landfills”, Onovwigun said.

The entrepreneur visualizes sustainability will take a big step forward in developing countries in the coming years. He specifies that ongoing international efforts to ‘industrialise’ Africa, with more people wanting to invest in extracting resources from the ‘urban mine’ rather than mining the earth for more and more materials.

Raymond Onovwigun set up his first recycling plant in Nigeria, West Africa, in 2015, while prior to that, he was a plumber, even running a very successful plumbing company in the UK. He switched non-ferrous recycling by selling his business and securing bank loans for around EUR 2 million to start a ‘clean tech’ company.

Romco has grown into an MNC today, which employs over 220 people in three countries. The recycling company earned a record EUR 4.9 million over Q1 2021, which is 718% more compared to Q1 2020.

 ‘We were able to process 487% more metals in the first quarter of the year,’ Onovwigun reported.