On Thursday, July 10, the inaugural Uganda business idea contest concluded.
Shs 12 million from Jica to enable them widen their enterprises for the greater good of the both the refugees and host communities.
“This money is going to enable us expand our outreach, employ more staff, and also acquire spare parts to aid in our work,” Idi said.
As it is, the E-waster multipurpose cooperative was officially registered last year. But the project started in 2022, courtesy of support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In it, Idi and the other 29 colleagues, recycle among other things, car, phone and laptop batteries that have been written off as dead or mal-functional. For example, many a computer user has experienced low of poor battery life. This has normally rendered it impossible to work unless the laptop (computer) is in power.
And even when it is fully charged, once the power goes, the laptop can hardly hold power for more than a few minutes to an hour. This has proved frustrating oftentimes. Yet, according to Idi, normally, when a computer battery begins acting up, it is because one of the cells in the pack is spoilt.
So, what Idi and company do, they collect several batteries, and select the cells therein that are still functioning, and put them together to build a new laptop battery.
“Most of the batteries that we have restored to normal functionality, are able to hold power for seven to nine hours without one having to power their machine again,” Idi explained.
Since they started this business, Idi said, they have restored to normal functionality 500 laptop batteries, and actually sell them at Shs 150,000 each. Because of the extensive nature of such work, is the reason why the judges picked this business idea.
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