Penda Manufacturing PLC will launch its new paper collection system called “Worke” (my gold) last Saturday at 40 locations in Addis Ababa. The new collection system includes bikes with collection carts, and will reward two birr for every kilo of paper provided by anyone in the city.
Penda was established in 2014 by Norwegian Marie and a team of investors with experience from the Scandinavian pulp & paper industry. In a partnership with the Addis Ababa City Administration it has to date created full-time jobs for 90 individuals, in addition to extra income creation for around 4,300 micro-enterprise waste collectors.
The company regularly collects waste paper and cartons from more than 130 factories and offices and has started an educational programme and recycling in collaboration with 182 schools and 220,000 students.
“A shocking fact is that more than 200,000 tons of paper and carton waste is dumped at landfills, burned or simply left as garbage on the streets every year inspired the investment idea,” Marie told Capital.
Ethiopia is a country which imports more than 100 million USD worth of raw materials for the paper industry every year. The current rate of using local recycled raw materials stands at around 5% relative to 15% in Kenya. “Instead of using scarce USD resources to import pulp and paper products, we need to start using the resources we already have in the country,” she said.
Realising a “circular economy” for waste paper in Ethiopia is an opportunity for massive import substitution, significant job creation in collection and manufacturing, cheaper paper and packaging products, as well as significant environmental benefits for the city. However, building such a recycling system at scale is a massive undertaking. It requires large infrastructure investments, strong logistics, and massive awareness building among everyday consumers.”
In addition to continuing its investments in collection infrastructure and manufacturing of quality raw materials for the local paper mills, Penda is just about to launch its own affordable exercise books for school children, with production expected to start this coming January.
People who deliver waste paper to “Worke” can also chose to donate the reward to charity. In collaboration with several local Rotaract Clubs, all donations will be used to provide free exercise books for the needy.
“We want to encourage all residents of Addis Ababa to help us make the city clean, beautiful, and environmentally sustainable. And most importantly, to help the access of affordable exercise books and other paper products in Ethiopia,” said Marie.
Penda will have the capacity to produce more than 10 million notebooks per year at its site in Akaki Kality Sub City.

A new proposal being prepared by Ministry of Agriculture would allow private companies or government enterprises to be the sole producer and distributor of a single type of seed. The seed would be developed by the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (ARI).
Currently any government or private company can buy seeds from ARI and multiply and sell them to the farmers and this has created unfair competition among the sellers.
Under the new plan one company will have a monopoly over a specific type of seed that they would obtain from ARI and then promote and sell. The seed producers would have to spend their own money advertising the seed. Feleke Gezahagn, Ethiopian Seed Supply Chain Director told Capital that the system will be more fair and will help farmers get the seeds they need on time.
Both public and private seed producers mainly concentrate on a few cereal crops, particularly hybrid maize and bread wheat. Moreover, they supply only a small portion of the total quantity of seed that farmers need. Thus, they do not satisfy the diversified seed demand of farmers so if we allow a specific seed for specific company we can distribute most of the seeds the farmers want,” he said.
In Ethiopia, various actors and stakeholders are involved in seed production activities. All these actors and stakeholders, in one way or another, contribute to production, promotion, supply and marketing of improved seed in the country. Studies show that only a small area of land is covered by improved seed, however… In Improving farmers’ access to seed empowering farmers’ innovation., between 2005/6 and 2009/10, only 3.5% of the land was planted with improved seed out of a total of 12 million hectares of land under major food crops. However, the total amount of improved seed used and the area of farmland covered by improved seed have increased during recent years.
The private sector has made some initial forays into Ethiopia’s seed industry during the past decade, and more specifically into the maize seed business.
The volume of seed production by private producers increased from 4994.1 tons in 2012/13 to 9819.2 tons in 2014/15. More specifically, the contribution of private producers is higher for hybrid maize seed production and distribution.
Seed producer cooperatives play a key role in the Ethiopian seed sector. They produce quality seeds of diversified crops and varieties and directly sell to customers locally and beyond. For example, in 2014 alone, more than 23 different crops and 131 varieties were produced by them
Currently five government and 60 private companies are engaged in seed production and sales.