Across Africa, conversations around industrialisation are increasingly turning green. Governments, investors, and development partners are investing in renewable energy, clean manufacturing, and circular economy value chains. Yet, beneath this visible layer of industrial ambition lies an invisible engine, the informal economy which quietly sustains much of the continent’s material flows and low-carbon activities.
Africa’s informal economy employs an estimated 85% of the workforce and contributes up to 55% of GDP. Informal employment exceeds 90% of the labour force in countries such as the DRC and Kenya. From waste pickers and street repairers to micro-manufacturers, these workers form the foundation of an emerging green ecosystem. While often overlooked in industrial strategies, their contribution to resource efficiency, recycling, and repair offers crucial lessons for a just and inclusive transition.
The informal economy as a circular engine
In many African cities, informal waste pickers recover and sort thousands of tonnes of recyclables daily, preventing valuable materials from ending up in landfills. In South Africa alone, there is around 60 000 informal waste pickers, some estimates suggest as many as 215 000. Collectively, they recover around 80% to 90% of all post-consumer paper and packaging recycled in the country, saving municipalities and taxpayers an estimated R750 million per year by diverting materials from landfill sites.
Their labour sustains much of the recycling sector, often feeding directly into formal manufacturing value chains. For example, South Africa’s PET recycling sector relies heavily on informal collectors who supply the raw materials for plastic repurposing industries. Globally, informal recyclers are responsible for roughly 58% of all plastic waste collected and recovered, underlining their vital role in reducing pollution and supporting circular economies.
Beyond recycling, Africa’s rich “repair culture” evident in markets where mobile phones, electronics, clothing, and vehicles are restored and reused is a living example of circular economy principles in action. These local technicians and traders extend the life of products, reducing the need for virgin materials and the emissions tied to new production. Informal artisans across the continent are also innovating with reclaimed resources, producing items such as furniture, stoves, and household goods that combine traditional skills with sustainable practice.
Linking informal and formal green value chain
Despite their significance, informal actors remain excluded from most industrial and climate frameworks. This disconnect limits opportunities to scale their contributions or improve livelihoods. Rather than attempting to “formalise” them through rigid regulation, policymakers should explore mechanisms that foster collaboration between informal and formal systems.
Green industrial parks could, for example, include designated inclusion zones for informal recyclers and micro-producers, giving them safe working conditions and access to shared facilities. Partnerships between municipalities, private companies, and recycler co-operatives can also create more efficient and equitable waste collection networks. South Africa’s reclaimers’ co-operatives and Kenya’s Jua Kali sector demonstrate how such collaboration can build resilient, community-rooted green economies.
Another important step is recognising and valuing the skills within the informal economy. Certification and training programmes tailored to informal workers, particularly in areas such as waste management, renewable energy maintenance, and eco-design can bridge the divide between grassroots innovation and industrial growth. When these actors gain access to credit, markets, and technology, they can become powerful enablers of sustainable manufacturing.
Financing and policy innovation
To fully harness this potential, governments and development agencies must adapt financing and policy tools. Climate funds and green industrial policies should deliberately include pathways for informal enterprises to access support. Microfinance, co-operative models, and community-based funds can empower informal workers to invest in safer, more efficient, and environmentally sound operations.
Successful examples are emerging: Rwanda’s national e-waste management model integrates informal recyclers into formal facilities in Ghana, community-based recycling hubs are transforming waste into local manufacturing inputs; and across West Africa, women-led co-operatives are converting agricultural residues into bio-products. Each of these initiatives illustrates the economic and environmental benefits of grassroots inclusion.
Rethinking industrialisation from the ground up
Africa’s green industrialisation will not be built by factories alone. It will depend on the countless informal actors who are already practising sustainability through necessity and ingenuity. Recognising their value, improving their working conditions, and linking them to formal systems is not merely an act of inclusion, it is a strategic pathway towards a regenerative, circular, and equitable economy.
In this context, the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII) which aims to “advance green industrialisation and investments across the continent by prioritising energy-intense industries and adding value to Africa’s natural resource endowments” provides a critical institutional platform. The informal sector’s actors from waste-pickers and repairers to micro-producers can become key allies of AGII’s vision: of green industrial clusters, value-added manufacturing, and circular systems embedded in local communities.
The future of African industry will be shaped as much by welders, repairers and recyclers as by engineers and investors. Green industrialisation must therefore be built from the ground up, powered by the very people who have long been making a living from re-using, repairing and re-imagining the materials others discard and aligned with strategic frameworks such as AGII to scale impact continent-wide.
Author: Kennedy Simango
Research Analyst
