According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Nigeria produced 16,900 tons of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) between 2015 and 2016. It is against this backdrop that Lagos-based startup Quadloop has embarked on manufacturing solar lanterns through the recycling of lithium batteries from old computers and cell phones.
“We discovered a market for locally made electrical products, but for which the components were not available in the country. At that point, we noticed that if we take advantage of electronic waste, we will reduce the cost of production as well as the cost at the point of sale,” explains Dozie Igweilo, the founder of Quadloop. These lights are then marketed to small local businesses and hairdressers who use them to reduce their energy consumption at night or as an alternative to power cuts.
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