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My passion for sustainability stems from my desire to empower people – Fanda – EnviroNews
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Zigwai Fanda is the founder of Climate Change and Circular Economy (CCCE) Africa, a non-governmental organisation established to address environmental issues and boost resources across African industries by combining climate action with circular economy principles.
In this interview with Etta Michael Bisong, the chemical engineer discusses her experiences in the sustainability community, particularly her vision to use entrepreneurship, responsible leadership, social innovation, and mindset shifts to transform solutions into sustainable businesses and create opportunities for communities across Africa.
What inspired you, as a chemical engineer, to think about the need for integrating social entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability?
As a chemical engineer, I was trained to understand how industrial processes, resources, energy, and waste interact. Over time, I realised that technical solutions alone cannot address Africa’s environmental and socioeconomic challenges. We also need entrepreneurship, responsible leadership, and social innovation to turn solutions into sustainable businesses and create opportunities for communities. This inspired me to promote an approach where economic growth, environmental responsibility, and social impact reinforce one another rather than compete.
How would you describe Africa’s approach to sustainability, and how can the continent best position itself to reach the required global standard?
Africa’s approach is evolving, but it remains largely uneven and reactive rather than sufficiently strategic and integrated. The continent faces significant challenges, but it also possesses enormous opportunities in renewable energy, circular economy, sustainable agriculture, green manufacturing, natural resources, and climate-smart infrastructure.
To reach global standards, Africa needs to move from commitments to implementation by strengthening environmental governance, investing in technology and innovation, mobilising climate finance, developing green skills, enforcing standards, and encouraging responsible private-sector participation.
Most importantly, Africa should not simply copy models developed elsewhere. We need African solutions designed around African realities, supported by global knowledge, technology, and investment.
You founded CCCE Africa to connect industry, innovation, and policy. Could you provide further details on CCCE Africa 2026 and how you intend to use the conference to promote sustainability across Africa?
CCCE Africa 2026 -the Climate Change and Circular Economy Africa Conference & Exhibition – is designed as a platform for dialogue, collaboration, innovation, and action. The conference will bring together government, industry, development institutions, investors, environmental organisations, academia, innovators, and young people to address Africa’s climate and sustainability challenges.
The event is scheduled to be held on the 17th and 18th of September, 2026, and will focus on moving beyond conversations towards practical solutions, partnerships, investment, technology transfer, and policy implementation.
Our objective is to build an ecosystem where a policy idea can connect with an innovator, an innovator can connect with industry, and an industry solution can connect with financing and government support.
Ultimately, we want CCCE Africa to become a catalyst for sustainable projects and partnerships across Africa, rather than simply another annual conference.
What key problems is Africa, particularly Nigeria, currently facing that require immediate attention?
There are several interconnected challenges requiring urgent attention: energy insecurity, environmental degradation, poor waste management, deforestation, flooding, erosion, pollution, unemployment, food insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, weak environmental enforcement, and limited access to climate finance and green technology.
Nigeria also needs to address the gap between policy formulation and implementation.
We must begin treating environmental challenges as economic and national-development issues, not merely environmental issues. If we solve these problems properly, we can simultaneously create jobs, attract investment, improve public health, strengthen communities, and build more resilient cities and industries.
How can government, environmentalists, NGOs, and social entrepreneurs work together to promote sustainable development and a greener economy across the continent?
The key is collaboration rather than working in silos.
Government should provide clear policies, incentives, standards, infrastructure, and an enabling regulatory environment. Environmental organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) bring research, advocacy, community knowledge, and accountability. Social entrepreneurs bring innovation and commercially viable solutions, while industry provides capital, technology, scale, and markets.
We need structured platforms where these stakeholders can develop solutions together, test them, finance them, and scale what works.
Government should create the enabling environment; entrepreneurs should create solutions; investors should provide capital; and civil society should help ensure accountability and inclusion.
Climate justice for Africa is essential, considering that the continent contributes only about 4% of global emissions while being highly vulnerable to climate change. What are your thoughts on this inequitable situation?
The situation raises a fundamental question of fairness and responsibility. Africa has contributed relatively little to historical global emissions, yet many African communities are among those most exposed to climate-related impacts.
Climate justice should therefore go beyond acknowledging Africa’s vulnerability. It should translate into accessible climate finance, technology transfer, capacity building, adaptation support, and greater investment in African-led solutions.
However, Africa should not approach this only from the perspective of vulnerability. We should also approach it from the perspective of opportunity. Africa has the potential to build a low-carbon economy without repeating many of the environmentally damaging development pathways taken by industrialised economies.
The objective should be a partnership where Africa receives the resources and technology necessary to transition while retaining ownership, dignity, and economic value from its natural and human capital.
What would you do differently, if you had magical powers, to help solve Africa’s current problems, especially Nigeria’s ecological crisis?
If I had magical powers, I would first eliminate the gap between good policies and actual implementation.
I would build a Nigeria where environmental regulations are consistently enforced, waste becomes an economic resource rather than a public-health problem, renewable energy becomes accessible and reliable, polluted ecosystems are restored, and industries are incentivised to adopt cleaner production.
I would also make environmental education and green skills a core part of our education system and empower young Africans to become entrepreneurs and innovators in the green economy.
But if I had to choose just one thing, I would change our mindset—from seeing environmental sustainability as a cost to understanding it as an investment in our economy, health, security, and future.
That mindset shift, supported by strong institutions and courageous leadership, could fundamentally transform Nigeria and Africa.