Armelle Sidje Tamo

Agricultural entrepreneur Armelle Sidje Tamo believes zero waste can be the new normal in Cameroon, where her shopping bags, cardboard and rolls of paper replace wood-based paper and plastic packaging.

Despite historically being the world leader in plantain production, Cameroon has already seen a loss of 200,000 hectares of vegetation due to deforestation for plastic-accumulating landfills. Roughly 4.3 million tonnes of plantain fruit is produced in Cameroon each year, and twice as much as this is discarded as waste by farmers. Sidje and her team collect plantain stems from this valuable biomass waste to produce a biodegradable alternative to paper and plastic packaging. Network and telecommunication engineer, Armelle Sidje Tamo, founder of PRA (Product Related to Agricultural sector) has several experiences in waste management, in leadership, rural and youth employment.

Armelle Sidje Tamo and her team have grown their business considerably over the last year, increasing production from two bags a week in 2019 to 50 bags each day in 2020. Their goal for 2022 is to increase production to 500 bags per day. To expand PRA’s zero waste vision across the continent; she and her team work hard and plan to train others Cameroonian and others countries in this amazing business opportunity. They have won several awards across Africa and are in permanent growth process. She believes that the best is still to come!