Achenyo Idachaba-Obaro, founder and CEO of Mitimeth, has called on the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) to support coastal communities and young innovators in scaling waste-to-wealth enterprises. She made the appeal during the 7th Olutumbi Maduka Annual Lecture (OMAL) in Lagos, themed "Waste to Wealth Revolution: Women Leading Africa's Sustainable Enterprises." Idachaba-Obaro emphasized the role of women engineers in transforming environmental challenges into sustainable businesses through technology and manufacturing systems. She noted that African women-led ventures are already converting plastic waste, agricultural residue, textile waste and invasive species into marketable products.
Examples cited include businesses in Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria producing furniture, textiles, renewable energy and home décor from waste materials. Mitimeth, her own social enterprise, harvests invasive water hyacinth from waterways to produce furniture, lighting, home décor and specialty paper, while involving local communities in the process. Idachaba-Obaro urged APWEN members to support innovations in machinery adaptation, biomaterial processing and scalable production systems to help local enterprises compete globally. She encouraged engineers to mentor school children and coastal communities already tackling environmental problems like water hyacinth infestation.
"Mentorship and engineering support can help transform grassroots ideas into commercially viable solutions capable of driving economic growth and environmental restoration," she said. The President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Ali Rabiu, represented by Valerie Agberagba, described the OMAL as a key platform for engineering discourse and national development. He praised APWEN for advancing professional excellence, inclusion and knowledge in engineering. Rabiu also celebrated Olutumbi Maduka, founder and first president of APWEN, as the first female Fellow and first female Vice-President of the NSE.
APWEN President Chinyere Igwegbe urged women engineers to lead Africa's waste-to-wealth revolution through green manufacturing and innovation. She stated that APWEN has empowered over 8,000 professional women engineers and thousands of female students across Nigeria and beyond. She highlighted projects converting plastics, cassava peels, landfill gas and water hyacinth into valuable goods. Maduka recalled placing a newspaper ad in 1982 to unite female engineers and establish APWEN in a male-dominated field. The annual lecture was instituted by the OMAL Planning Committee, chaired by Rose Madaki, to honour Maduka's legacy.
Achenyo Idachaba-Obaro champions community-led waste innovation while relying on APWEN, an association founded decades ago to integrate women into formal engineering structures, to scale grassroots efforts. Her call exposes a gap between existing local solutions and the delayed engagement of established professional bodies in backing them. APWEN's reported empowerment of over 8,000 engineers and students has not yet translated into visible support for ventures like Mitimeth. Without direct investment or technical collaboration from such associations, women-led innovations may remain small-scale despite their proven potential.
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