Rising Tide Africa has committed up to $1 million to Ororo Waste Management to tap into Nigeria's largely untapped used cooking oil market. The investment aims to expand collection infrastructure and bring more informal collectors into the formal economy. Nigeria generates an estimated 840,000 metric tonnes of used cooking oil annually, but over 95 percent is currently uncaptured. This represents a significant feedstock opportunity for the biofuel and sustainable aviation fuel markets.
The investment, equivalent to about N1.4 billion, will help Ororo increase its collection hubs, finance purchases of used cooking oil from collectors, and strengthen working capital to pay suppliers. Ororo currently operates collection hubs in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt and plans to increase that network to over 40 hubs across Nigeria within the next five years. The company also plans to grow its formally paid collector network from about 5,000 currently to over 200,000 by 2031.
Women are expected to account for at least half of newly onboarded market-level collection points, with the potential to reach three-quarters. Yemi Keri, co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, said the investment is an example of gender-lens investing in practice. The investment targets an often-overlooked part of the used cooking oil value chain: the collection and aggregation infrastructure required to move waste from households, markets, and businesses into international supply chains.
Ororo received the first tranche of the corporate note on September 16, with additional funding possible through December 16. The company uses GPS and QR-code technology to track transactions from collectors to export containers, while payments are made through mobile money. Ayo Banjo, co-CEO of Ororo Waste Management, said international refiners require documented and certified volumes rather than simply the availability of waste.
Ororo is International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) certified and has exported thousands of metric tonnes of used cooking oil without a quality rejection. The company supplies certified feedstock to global biofuel and sustainable aviation fuel markets under contracted offtake agreements. The investment comes as demand grows for certified waste-based feedstocks used in the production of lower-carbon fuels, particularly in export markets.
The European Union's revised Renewable Energy Directive requires member states to achieve a 29 percent renewable energy share in transport or a 14.5 percent reduction in the greenhouse-gas intensity of transport fuels by 2030. This policy supports demand for certified waste-based feedstocks, creating an export opportunity for countries capable of collecting, documenting, and certifying such materials. For Nigeria, however, the challenge is less about the availability of used cooking oil than the ability to capture it consistently.
Ororo and Rising Tide Africa have agreed to preliminary five-year development targets, which include increasing certified used cooking oil collection from a few thousand metric tonnes to over 150,000 tonnes annually by 2031. The company also expects to complete an income survey of its first formally onboarded collector group from the July 2026 training by the end of this year. Olaitan Dawodu, director of operations at Ororo Waste, said participants would earn income for their respective roles in the supply chain.
Key points
- Rising Tide Africa commits $1 million to Ororo Waste Management to expand collection infrastructure for used cooking oil in Nigeria.
- Nigeria generates an estimated 840,000 metric tonnes of used cooking oil annually, but over 95 percent is currently uncaptured.
- Ororo aims to increase its collection hubs to over 40 across Nigeria and grow its formally paid collector network to over 200,000 by 2031.
