The African Circular Economy Fund, a multi-donor trust fund administered by the African Development Bank Group, is expanding its reach to eight additional nations supporting the creation and launch of national circular economy roadmaps. This second cohort enhances a program that continues to demonstrate how the integration of circularity into public policy, can drive economic transformation.
As part of this second phase of the National Roadmaps for the Circular Economy (NCER) program, Angola, Liberia, Madagascar, and Senegal will develop their own roadmaps by identifying priority sectors, aligning institutional efforts, and tailoring strategic guidelines to their local productive structures. Meanwhile, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, and Mauritius, are entering the implementation phase to translate government frameworks into actionable policies, funded programs, and sustainable institutional capacities.
"The continent faces an annual development financing gap of more than $400 billion. Roadmaps for the circular economy can help countries strengthen their domestic productive capacities and turn their priorities into investment opportunities," said Anthony Nyong, Director of the Climate Change and Green Growth Department at the African Development Bank Group.
A vast portion of Africa's natural resources continues to be exported unprocessed, hindering industrialisation and limitinglocal job creation. The circular economy directly mitigates this structural loss of value by retaining resources and their productive potential within national economies.
Focused on value creation and community opportunities, this approach aligns seamlessly with the African Development Bank Group's Four Cardinal Points strategic vision and the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) seeking to mobilise more African capital, strengthen the continent's financial markets, and finance large-scale transformation to promote employment, business growth, and local value creation.
The four countries in the first cohortBenin, Cameroon, Chad, and Ethiopia have already demonstrated the potential of this approach. Their respective roadmaps successfully identified priority sectors, most notably in construction, forestry, agriculture, plastics, textiles, manufacturing, energy, and water management.
In Chad, the roadmap aims to create more than 25,000 green jobs and reduce non-recycled waste by 40% by 2035, across six priority sectors. "Far from being a luxury, this initiative is a vital necessity for Chad's future. It paves the way for us to diversify an economy that is still heavily dependent on oil," said Chad's Minister of the Environment, Hassan Bakhit Djamous.
In Benin, the Circular Economy Action Plan, launched in February 2026, sets ambitious 10- -year goals: to achieve a 25% recycling rate, ensure the collection of all municipal waste, and establish 300 circular economy businesses.
Roadmaps serve as structural frameworks for investment. They allow stakeholders to pinpoint the sectors where circular solutions create the most value, organize the actions necessary for deployment, and define the governance mechanisms essential to their sustainability.
Through the African Circular Economy Fund, which also finances the African Circular Economy Alliance, the Bank Group provides the technical assistance needed to establish an enabling policy and institutional environment. The goal is to move Africa's circular economy transformation from ambition to action.
